Auricula is a garden flower derived from the yellow Primula Auricula, found native in the Swiss Alps, and sometimes called bear's-ear from the shape of its leaves. It has for centuries been an object of cultivation by florists, who have succeeded in raising from seed a great number of beautiful varieties. Its leaves are obovate, entire or serrated, and fleshy, varying, however, in form in the numerous varieties. The flowers are borne on an erect umbel and central scape with involucre. The original colours of the corolla are yellow, purple, and variegated, and there is a mealy covering on the surface. Research Auricula
Coriander (Coriandrum sativum) is an umbelliferous plant native to Italy. It is a hairless annual with one to three-pinnate leaves, the lower segments of which are ovate to wedge shaped. The flowers are white, and borne on three to ten simple umbels in a compoundumbel. The fruit, often called a seed though it is not, is dried and used in cookery. Research Coriander
Cowbane (Cicuta virosa) or water hemlock as it is also known, is a very poisonous perennialherb of the family Umbelliferae with a hollow, rigid, furrowed stem which is tuberous and horizontally chambered at the base. The basal leaves are long-stalked, bi- or tripinnate with lanceolate, sharply serrated segments. The stalk leaves have sheath-like stalks clasping the stem. The small white flowers are arranged in a compoundumbel. The fruit is a curved, ribbed double achene. Cowbane grows in shallow water marshes, ditches and similar moist locations throughout northern and Central Europe and some parts of Britain. Research Cowbane
Crown vetch (Coronilla varia) is a highly poisonous perennialherb of the family Leguminosae with a deep root and a straggling, branched, ascending stem. The leaves are alternate, odd pinnate and without a tendril. The flowers are white, purple or pink and arranged in a solitary rounded umbel at the end of a long stalk which is longer than the leaves and grows from the leaf axils. The fruit is a four-angled, erect, slender, jointed pod with a terminal beak. Research Crown Vetch
Flowering-rush (Butoinus umbellatus), us a plant of the natural order Butomaceae. It is a beautiful plant found in pools and wet ditches of England and Ireland, but rare in Scotland. The leaves are about 85 cm long, linear, triangular, their sharp edges sometimes cutting the mouths of cattle, whence their generic name Butomus (ox-cutting). The scape or flowering stem terminates in a large umbel of rose-coloured flowers. Research Flowering-Rush
The leek (Allium porrum) is a hardy biennial plant of the lily family (Liliaceae), related to the onion. In the first year, long, linear leaves arise from a compressed stem. In the second year a tall, solid stalk rises bearing leaves and a large, globular, simple, terminal umbel of numerous flowers. Research Leek
Lovage (Ligusticum scoticum) is a perennialherbaceous plant of the family Umbelliferae, native to Britain. It has a robust, hollow, angled and branched stem, and large, long-stalked, bi- or tripinnate leaves with glossy dark-green leaflets. The stem leaves are less divided. The flowers are small, pinkish-white or greenish-yellow in colour and arranged in a compoundumbel. Research Lovage
Sanicle (Sanicula europaea) is a perennialherb of the family Umbelliferae native to Britain and Europe, with a thick, brown, fibrous rhizome and a basal rosette of deeply palmately lobed, long-stalked, glossy and toothed leaves. The flowering stems are erect, branched at the top, with a few small, usually sessile leaves. The flowers are small, white or pale pink in colour and arranged in a terminal rounded umbel made up of several secondary, few-flowered umbels. The fruit is an avoid double achene covered with hooked bristles. Research Sanicle
South Sea Arrowroot (Tacca pinnatifida) is a perennialherb of the natural order Taccaceae native to the East Indies and Society Islands. It has a tuberous root stock, which like that of the potato and rice is rich in starch. The leaves are large and cut into oval segments, the flowers are purplish in colour, funnel-shaped and clustered in a dense umbel and succeeded by large, pear-shaped, ribbed fruits. Strips of the leaves are plaited into hats, but mainly the plant is grown for the starch which is obtained by rasping the tubers and macerating the material in water, the resulting deposit being a fine form of arrowroot. Research South Sea Arrowroot
An umbel is an inflorescence in which all the flowers are borne upon pedicels of equal length arising from a common centre. The arrangement is characteristic of the Umbelliferae family. Research Umbel
The Probert Encyclopaedia was designed, edited and programed by
Matt and Leela Probert
Abbreviations
Research Auricula
