1. S. pentándrum, Ell. Annual, procumbent or sometimes erect; leaves oblong- to obovate-spatulate, obtuse; flowers sessile, stamens 5. (S. Portulacastrum, Gray, Manual, not L.)—Sea coast, N. J. to Fla.
2. MOLLÙGO, L. Indian-Chickweed.
Sepals 5, white inside. Stamens hypogynous, 5 and alternate with the sepals, or 3 and alternate with the 3 cells of the ovary. Stigmas 3. Capsule 3-celled, 3-valved, loculicidal, the partitions breaking away from the many-seeded axis.—Low homely annuals, much branched, the stipules obsolete. (An old Latin name for some soft plant.)
M. verticillàta, L. (Carpet-weed.) Prostrate, forming patches; leaves spatulate, clustered in whorls at the joints, where the 1-flowered pedicels form a sort of sessile umbel, stamens usually 3.—Sandy river-banks, and cultivated grounds. June–Sept. (An immigrant from farther south.)
Order 48. UMBELLÍFERÆ. (Parsley Family.)
Herbs, with small flowers in umbels (or rarely in heads), the calyx entirely adhering to the 2-celled and 2-ovuled ovary, the 5 petals and 5 stamens inserted on the disk that crowns the ovary and surrounds the base of the 2 styles. Fruit consisting of 2 seed-like dry carpels. Limb of the calyx obsolete, or a mere 5-toothed border. Petals either imbricated in the bud or valvate with the point inflexed. The two carpels (called mericarps) cohering by their inner face (the commissure), when ripe separating from each other and usually suspended from the summit of a slender prolongation of the axis (carpophore); each carpel marked lengthwise with 5 primary ribs, and often with 4 intermediate (secondary) ones; in the interstices or intervals between them are commonly lodged the oil-tubes (vittæ), which are longitudinal canals in the substance of the fruit, containing aromatic oil. (These are best seen in slices made across the fruit.) Seed suspended from the summit of the cell, anatropous, with a minute embryo in hard albumen.—Stems usually hollow. Leaves alternate, mostly compound, the petioles expanded or sheathing at base, rarely with true stipules. Umbels usually compound, in which case the secondary ones are termed umbellets; the whorl of bracts which often subtends the general umbel is the involucre, and those of the umbellets the involucels. The base of the styles is frequently thickened and cushion-like, and called the stylopodium. In many the flowers are dichogamous, i.e. the styles are protruded from the bud some time before the anthers develop,—an arrangement for cross-fertilization.—A large family, some of the plants innocent and aromatic, others with very poisonous (acrid-narcotic) properties. The flowers are much alike in all, and the fruits, inflorescence, etc., likewise exhibit comparatively small diversity. The family is consequently difficult for the young student.
I. Fruit with the secondary ribs the most prominent, winged and armed with barbed or hooked prickles, the primary ribs filiform and bristly.
1. Daucus. Calyx-teeth obsolete. Fruit flattened dorsally. Seed-face flat.
2. Caucalis. Calyx-teeth prominent. Fruit flattened laterally. Seed-face deeply sulcate.
II. Fruit with primary ribs only (hence but 3 dorsal ones on each carpel).