thermometer never once went below 104°."--_Boston Herald._

* * * * *




HEMLOCK AND PARSLEY.

By W.W. BAILEY.


The study of the order Umbelliferæ presents peculiar difficulties to
the beginner, for the flowers are uniformly small and strikingly
similar throughout the large and very natural group. The family
distinctions or features are quite pronounced and unmistakable, and it
is the determination of the genera which presents obstacles--serious,
indeed, but not insurmountable. "By their fruits shall ye know them."

The Umbelliferæ, as we see them here, are herbaceous, with hollow,
often striated stems, usually more or less divided leaves, and no
stipules. Occasionally we meet a genus, like Eryngium or Hydrocotyle,
with leaves merely toothed or lobed. The petioles are expanded into
sheaths; hence the leaves wither on the stem. The flowers are usually
arranged in simple or compound umbels, and the main and subordinate
clusters may or may not be provided with involucres and involucels. To
this mode of arrangement there are exceptions. In marsh-penny-wort
(Hydrocotyle) the umbels are in the axils of the leaves, and scarcely
noticeable; in Eryngium and Sanicula they are in heads. The calyx is
coherent with the two-celled ovary, and the border is either obsolete