PASTIN AC A fativa.
Wild Parjnep.
P E N T A N DR I A Digynia.
G en. C har. Fruit elliptical, com prefled almoft flat.
Petals involute, entire. Involucra neither general
nor partial.
Spec. Char. Leaves Amply pinnate, downy beneath.
Syn . Paftinaca fativa. Linn. Sp. PI. 376. With. 309.
Mart. Fl. Ruß. t. 83.
P. fylveftris. Hudf. 125. Relh. 122. Sibth. 101.
Abbot 67.
P. lylveftris latifolia. Rail Syn. 206.
T h e wild Parfnep is found in the borders of fields and by
road tides, plentifully enough on a calcareous or chalky foil,
but not on any other, flowering in July, and the root is biennial.
W e received it from Norfolk by favour of the Rev. Mr.
Watts.
Root fpindle-lhaped, white, aromatic, fweet, with a degree
of acrimony. Stem 3 feet high, ereft, branched, angular,
furrowed, roughith. Leaves pinnate, with footftälks dilated at
the bafe; leaflets from 5 to 9, lharply ferrated and fomewhat
cut, downy beneath ; the odd one in three lobes. Umbels terminal,
fohtary, erefit, of feveral roughifh rays. Involucrum in
general altogether wanting, but fometimes a fmall folitary leaf
occurs at the bafe of the general, as well as partial, flower-ftalks;
for it is well known to practical botanifts that this part affords
by no means fuch certain generic characters in umbelliferous
plants as Linnseus and Artedi thought, the feeds being more to
be trufted. The flowers are fmall, with deep-yellow petals
rolled inwards. Fruit large, elliptical, flat, ribbed, fmooth, of
a very light brown when ripe.
The garden parfnep is a cultivated variety of this, with larger
fmoother leaves, and a mild eatable root. There is no reafon to
change the Linnsean name fativa, which expreffes that this is
the fpecies which is cultivated.