This is a very large order, but it is so natural that no person who has seen Parsley in flower can ever be in any doubt as to an umbelliferous plant. Most of the species are either culinary plants, such as the Parsnep and Carrot, Celery, Parsley, Fennel, &c., or poisonous weeds, such as Hemlock, and the Water Parsnep; and there are very few ornamental plants included in the order: among these few may, however, be mentioned _Didiscus_ or _Trachymena cærulea_, _Eryngium_, and _Bupleurum_ or _Tenoria fruticosum_, _Angelica_, and _Heracleum_. Some of the species of the latter, particularly the Gigantic Siberian Cow Parsnep (_H. asperum_), are perfectly magnificent objects. Notwithstanding the ease with which these plants may generally be recognised, as in some of the allied orders the flowers grow in umbels or cymes, it may be necessary to remark that Dr. Lindley defines umbelliferous plants to consist of those which have their “flowers growing in umbels, with inferior fruit, which, when ripe, separates, or may be separated, into two grains.” Thus the common Dogwood is not an umbelliferous plant, though its flowers grow in umbels, because its fruit is a berry. ORDER XCIX.—ARALIACEÆ. The most interesting plant in this order is _Hedera Helix_, the common Ivy; a well-known climbing evergreen shrub, which throws out roots from its branches at intervals, which it strikes into any substance to which it can adhere. The flowers have all their parts in five or ten divisions; even the lower leaves, which are smooth and leathery, are five-lobed. The leaves on the flowering branches, which are always in the upper part of the plant, are entire. The flowers are produced in umbels, and they are succeeded by berries, which, in correspondence with the parts of the flowers, are five or ten celled. The large-leaved variety, called the Irish Ivy, is a native of the Canary Isles; and the gold and silver leaved, and golden berried, are all varieties of the common kind. There are, however, many exotic species, most of which have not yet been introduced. The genus Aralia, known by its two garden species, _A. spinosa_ and _A. japonica_, belongs to this order. The first of these is called the Angelica Tree, and is an old inhabitant of our gardens; but _A. japonica_ is of quite recent introduction. ORDER XCIX.*—HAMAMELIDEÆ.