C H i E R O P H Y L L Ü M aureum.
Tawny-seeded Cow Parsley,
PENTANDRJA Digynia.
G en. Char. General invol. none; partial reflexed, con-
cave' Petals heartrshaped. Fruit oblong, smoothish.
Spec. Char. _ Stem somewhat swelling, angular, more
or less hairy. Leaflets pinnatifid, acute, cut. Seeds
coloured, ribbed.
Syn. Chserophyllum aureum. Linn. Sp. PI. 370 • but
not Mant. 3 5 6 , Jacq. Austr. v. 1. 40. t 64
Cerefolium n. 749. H all. Hist. v. 1. 3 2 8 .,* '
Myrrhis perennis alba minor, foliis hirsutis, semine
aureo. Rupp. Jen. ed. H all. 282. t. 5.
T h i s is one of those rare plants discovered by Mr. G. Don
with which few botanists are at all acquainted. He found it
in the borders of fields, between Arbraath and Montrose, and
at Corstorphine near Edinburgh. It is perennial, flowering
in June. ' °
The stem is about three feet high, branched, solid, angular,
striated, slightly tumid below each joint, clothed more or
less with short, soft, deflexed hairs, among which a few
coarse bristles are occasionally interspersed, like those of the
exotic Ck. hirsutum, but more deflexed. In Switzerland it is
often nearly or quite smooth, as described by Jacquin. The
common leaf-stalk surrounds the stem by a ring at its base,
but its edges upwards are linear and but little dilated. The
leaves and leaflets have sharp and rather elongated points, and
are acutely pinnatifid, and roughish. Umbels flattish, cream-
coloured, often having the rudiments of a general involucrum.
The seeds when young are rather tumid upwards; as they
ripen they grow more lanceolate, of a tawny or yellowish hue,
marked with three broad smooth ribs at eaph side, and crowned
with the divaricated styles.