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Stout perennial glabrous usually glaucous thick-rooted herbs, of perhaps 50 species in S. Eu., N. Afr., and W. Asia: lvs. pinnately decompound, the ultimate segms. filiform or small (rarely broadish and dentate): fls. small, in elevated compound many-radiate umbels; petals broad, mostly ovate-acute, the point often inflexed: fr. orbicular or ovate, piano-compressed, membranous-bordered.—The giant fennels arc valued for the excessive fineness with which their foliage is cut, and their clusters of perhaps 40-50 umbels of minute yellow fls. borne on stout sts., which rise far above the foliage. In spring the masses of foliage are very refreshing. The bold fl.-sts. make the plants useful for bordering plantations and for stream sides. The ferulas yield gum-ammoniac, galbanum and asafetida. The genus is now held to include Narthex, Scorodosma and Euryangium. These plants are not to be confounded with the true fennels, which belong in Foeniculum. Ferula is closely allied to Peucedanum. The species are difficult to represent in herbaria, and they are confused.
Stout perennial glabrous usually glaucous thick-rooted herbs, of perhaps 50 species in S. Eu., N. Afr., and W. Asia: lvs. pinnately decompound, the ultimate segms. filiform or small (rarely broadish and dentate): fls. small, in elevated compound many-radiate umbels; petals broad, mostly ovate-acute, the point often inflexed: fr. orbicular or ovate, piano-compressed, membranous-bordered.—The giant fennels arc valued for the excessive fineness with which their foliage is cut, and their clusters of perhaps 40-50 umbels of minute yellow fls. borne on stout sts., which rise far above the foliage. In spring the masses of foliage are very refreshing. The bold fl.-sts. make the plants useful for bordering plantations and for stream sides. The ferulas yield gum-ammoniac, galbanum and asafetida. The genus is now held to include Narthex, Scorodosma and Euryangium. These plants are not to be confounded with the true fennels, which belong in Foeniculum. Ferula is closely allied to Peucedanum. The species are difficult to represent in herbaria, and they are confused.
F. assafaetida, Linn. (Asafoetida disgunensis, Kaempf. Scorodosma foetidum, Bunge). St. 6-12 ft., very stout and much-branched: lvs. puberulous and minutely glandular or somewhat tomentose, the radical ones large and ternatisect with segms. oblong-lanceolate and obtuse: umbels on fleshy peduncles, 20-30-rayed, the fls. yellow. S. W. Asia. G.C. III. 32:443. An evil-smelling plant, one source of the drug asafetida.—F. Narthex, Boiss. Narthex Asafoetida, Falconer). St. 6-8 ft., with large sheaths: lvs. pubescent when young, 1-2 ft. long, ovate, the segms. either entire or irregularly serrate. S.W.Asia. B.M. 5168. A source of asafetida. A specimen described in G. F. 3, p. 523, required 16 years to attain sufficient strength to bloom. L. H. B.
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