PEUCEDANUM Silaus.
Meadow Sulphur-wort.
PEN TANDRIA Digynia.
G e n . C h a r . Fruit ovate, compressed, striated on both
sides, encompassed with a border. Cal. o f 5 teeth.
General Involucrum very short. Flowers o f the
disk abortive.
S p e c . C h a r . Leaflets pinnatifid ; their segments opposite,
decurrent. General involucrum of barely
two leaves.
S y n . Peucedanum Silaus. Linn. Sp. PI. 3 5 4 . Sm. FI.
Brit. 3 0 5 . Huds. 1 1 6. With. 2 9 4 . Hull. 6 0 . ed.
2 . 8 0 . Relh. 111. Sibth. 9 5 . Abbot. 6 0 . Jacq.
Austr. t. 1 5 . Mart. Rust. t. 1 2 8 .
Seseli pratense nostras. Rail Syn. 2 1 6 .
N o t unfrequent in meadows, or rather moist pastures, flowering
from July to September.
Root tap-shaped, perennial. Whole plant smooth, from 1
to 2 feet high, of a darkish green, foetid when bruised, and
supposed, in some parts of Norfolk, to give a bad flavour to
milk and butter, though Schreber and Martyn observe that
cattle do not appear in general to eat it. Stem round, furrowed,
branched, leafy, tough. Leaves variously compounded
and divided, with sharp, decurrent, undivided or pinnatifid,
opposite leaflets. Umbels rigid, their outer rays longest.
General involucrum of I or 2 short leaves ; partial of several
longer ones. Flowers of a yellow or greenish hue, with purple
anthers and pistils. Calyx-teeth scarcely discernible. Petals
keeled, indexed. Germen composed of 2 ribbed hemispheres.
Fruit more ovate, and at length oblong, scarcely bordered, so
that it answers but imperfectly to the generic character,
though its habit and sensible qualities agree tolerably with
others of this genus. * / /wo /iuUvi/itdayfJoiPftfiyAjhaLn