HERACLEUM Sphondylium.
Common Cow Parfnep.
P E N T A N D R I A Bigynia.
G s n . C h a r . Fruit e llip tica l, n otch ed , compreflèd,
ftriated, dilated in the ma rg in. Flowers radiant.
Petals n o tch ed , with an in d ex ed p oint. General
Involucrum de ciduous.
S p e c . C h a r . Leaves pinnate: leaflets pinnatifid,
cut and ferrated,
S y n . Heracleum Sphondylium. Linn. Sp. PI. 358.
Srn. FI. Brit. 307. Hudf. 117. With. 295.
Hull. 58. Relb. 1 14, Silth, 95. A llo t . 61.
Sphondylium. Rail Syn. floe,,
J l L VERY one knows the Cow Parfnep, the largeft and moft
confpicuous of our common umbelliferous plants, whofe tall
ftems and great white or reddifli umbels are to be feen throughout
the month of July by road-fides, in thickets, groves, borders
of fields, and even meadows.
The root is biennial, tap-fliaped. Stem ere&, branched,
leafy, flout, hollow, furrowed and rough, moftly 4 feet high.
Leaves large, femate or pinnate, varioufly pinnatifid, cut and
ferrated, downy beneath ; their common ftalk furnifhed with
one large inflated ribbed ftipula. Umbels flattifh, of many
rays. General and partial involucra of feveral lanceolate
lharp leaves, the former in particular foon falling off. Petals
unequal, inverfely heart-fliaped with an inflexed tooth between
the lobes, a circumftance common to many flowers of this
natural order, but in none more confpicuous than in the outer-
moft petals of the prefent plant. Fruit elliptical, broad and
flat, fmooth, with 3 ribs on each fide.
W e are authorized to fay that the H. angujlifolium of all
Britifh writers is merely a narrow-leaved variety of this, fome-
times growing from the fame root, as Mr. Woodward firft
remarked. It has beep, fufpefted that Profeflor Jacquin has
made too many fpecies in this genus; and it is neceflary here
to add that even the U> angu/iy'olium of FI* Brit, proves on
examination to be different from the Linnsean plant to which
it was, on the faith of two moft excellent botanifts, referred,
and to which the defcription in i'/. Brit, belongs.