2^0 [ 2249 ]
MEUM athamanticum.
Spignel, Meu, or Balcl-money.
P ENTANDRIA Digynia.
G en. Char. Fruit elliptic-oblong, with 3 ribs on
each side. Invol. somewhat cu t ; the general one
often abortive; the partial halved. Petals in-
flexed, entire. Calyx obsolete.
Spec. Char. Leaflets all in numerous, deep, bristlelike
segments.
Syn, Meum athamanticum. Jacq. Austr. v. 4. 2.
t. 303. Sm. FI. Brit. 3 0 8 . Hull. ed. 2 81
Meum. Raii Syn. 2 0 7 . Ger. cm. 1052.
Athamanta Meum. Linn. Sp. P i. 353. Huds. 116.
Dicks. II. Sicc.fasc. 11. 7.
/Ethusa Meum. Linn. Syst. Vet? ed 14 287
With. 305. ‘ ' AOt-
^ N a t i v e of mountainous pastures in Westmoreland, Lan-
easfnre, the north of Yorkshire, and Merionethshire, as welt
as in Scotland, from which last country L ady Wilson favoured
us with this specimen. It flowers in May.
The root is perennial, thick and woody, very 'aromatic
crowned with the fibrous remains of old leafstalks. Stem but
little branched, about a span high when in blossom, but twice
as tall in seed. Leaves dark green, doubly pinnate, their
segments numerous and singularly delicate, smooth. Footstalks
dilated into a broad, concave, ribbed stipula. Flowers
numerous, uniform, cream-coloured' or reddish. General in-
vofucrum of a few linear or lanceolate leaves, mostly 3-cleft
often wanting; partial of rather more, either entire or cut.’
Calyx scarcely discernible, Fruit slightly compressed, with
3 acute ribs to each side. Possibly this plant, about whose
genus there have been such various opinions, might without
violence be referred to Ligusticum.
Miss Watson of Delvine house, Angusshire, has informed
Mr. Sowerby that where this herb abounds in the Highlands,
the milk and butter partake of its peculiar melilot-like taste in
e spring; and that a pretty strong infusion of it gives cheese
the: flavour of the Swiss C/iapztegar, so as hardly to be
distinguished from-that brought from abroad. As the Meum
disappears wherever the land has been ploughed, it daily
grows more scarce in Scotland. 1 s 5 y