S IS O N Amomum.
Hedge Honewort.
PENTANDRIA- Digynia.
G e n . C h a r . Fruit ovate, ftriated. Involucra both
general and partial, each o f about 4 leaves. Petals
lan ceo la te , in fle x ed .
S p e c . C h a r . Leaves pinnated. Umbels eredi, of
about four rays.
S y n . Sifon Amomum. Linn. Sp. PI. 362. Sm. FI.
Brit. 315. Hudf. Iig. With. 300. Him. 62.
Relb. 116. Sibth. 97. Abbot. 63.
Si urn aromaticum, Sifon Off. Rail Syn. 2x1.
O n e fpecies of Sifon, and that the more rare, has appeared
in our 4th volume, t. 228 ; the only remaining Britifh plant
of this genus is S. Amomum, which not very unfrequently occurs
in rather moift fpots under hedges, where the foil is
marly or chalky, flowering in the latter part of fummer.
Root annual or biennial, fpindle-fhaped, with lateral branches.
Stem eredt, 2 or 3 feet high (except in dry places), much
branched and fpreading, rather zigzag, round, furrowed,
fmooth, leafy. Leaves pinnate with a terminal lobed leaflet,
unequally ferrated; the upper ones more compound or divided.
Umbels numerous, terminal, folitary, eredt when in flower,
compofed of about 4, feldom more, unequal rays, with afmall
four-leaved general involucrum. Partial umbels likewife of
but few and unequal rays, with a minute four-leaved partial
involucrum. Flowers of 5 white inflexed petals, broader than
thofe of S.fegetum. Calyx fcarcely perceptible. Fruit ovate,
fhort, comprefled, ribbed.
The feeds are aromatic and pungent when ripe and dry;
but in an early ftate they, like the whole herb, have a peculiarly
naufeous frnell.