APIUM graveolens.
Smallage, or Wild, Celery.
PENTANDRIA Digynia.
G en. Char. P artial Invol. none: general o f 1 leaf.
Fruit ovate, ribbed. Petals inflexed, uniform.
S pec. Char. Leaflets of the stem-leaves wedge-shaped.
Stem furrowed.
Syn. Apium graveolens. Linn. Sp. PL 379. Sm. FI.
B rit. 3 3 3 . Huds. 129. With. 3 1 4 . Hull. 64.
Relh. 123. Sibth. 103. Abbot. 6 9 .
A. palustre et officinarum. R ail Syn. 214.
T o bring under one view, as much as possible, a natural
order of plants, we here exhibit another of the umbelliferous
tribe, which frequently occurs in ditches and marshy places,
especially near the sea, flowering in August or later. Though
well known by the name of Celery in gardens, where culture
renders it luxuriant, mild and wholesome, it would scarcely
be recognized at the table in its slender wild form, neither
would its acrid, and indeed poisonous, qualities make it welcome.
The root is biennial and tap-shaped. Stems widely spreading
or floating, long, furrowed, leafy. The whole plant is
smooth, of a pale green. Leaves pinnate or ternate j the leaflets
wedge- or fan-shaped, especially in the stem leaves, shining,
deeply cu t: those of the radical ones are generally rounder.
Umbels terminal and lateral, often sessile, irregular, with a
single-leaved general involucrum, which however is often wanting.
Partial involucra none. Flowers small, uniform, o f a
pale greenish white. Fruit almost orbicular