S C A N D IX Pecten-Veneris.
Needle Chervil.
PENTANDRIA Digynia.
G en. Char. Gen. involucrum none. Flowers radiant.
Petals notched. Fruit awl-shaped. Central powers
often male.
Spec. Char. Seeds roughish, with very long beaks.
Leaflets cut into many linear segments.
Syn. Scandix Pecten-Veneris. Linn. Sp. PL 368.
Sm. FI. Brit. 324. Huds. 123. With. 307.
Hull. 63. Relh. 118. Sibth. 100. Ahhot. 66.
Curt. Lond. fasc. 5. t. 21. Mart. Rust. t. 38.
Dicks. H. Sicc.fasc. 15. 4.
S. semine rostrato vulgaris. Raii Sun. 207.
T h r e e British species of Scandioc have been described in this
work already. The only remaining one, as far as has been yet
observed* is the most common of all in cultivated ground, and
is known by the name of Venus’s Comb, or Shepherd’s Needle,
in allusion to the remarkably long beaks of the seeds, resembling
needles, or the teeth df a comb. It begins flowering
in June and lasts till September, being not very conspicuous
till the seeds are fully grown.
Root annual. Stems branched, spreading, leafy, furrowed
and rough, various in height and luxuriance. Leaves light
gieen, alternate, triply pinnatifid, their segments linear, acute,
smoothish $ their common footstalks dilated and clasping the
stem. Umbels of 2 or 3 long rays ; the partial ones of several
short rays. Partial involucrum of many membranous leaves,
variously jagged, and rough-edged. -Flowers small and white,
Seeds rough, as well as their long angular beaks. The petals
can scarcely be called notched, but are curled in, which gives
them that appearance, though less than in many other umbelliferous
flowers.