Pleurospermum
(from pleuron, a side, and sperma, seed; in allusion to the size of the fruit ridges). SYNS. Aulacospermum, Hymenolaena, Physospermum. ORD. Umbelliferae. A genus comprising about fifteen species of hardy, tall or dwarf, glabrous, biennial or perennial herbs; three are natives of mostly Eastern Europe and Russian Asia, and the rest are all Himalayan. Flowers white or dark purple; petals obovate or cuneate, rather large for the order; bracts of the involucres and involucels indefinite, sometimes coloured; umbels compound, many-rayed. Leaves pinnate or pinnately decompound; segments ovate, toothed, incised, or cut into narrow laciniae. Only one species calls for description here. It thrives in any common soil, and may be readily increased by seeds, or by divisions.
P. austriacum (Austrian). fl. white; involucre many-leaved. Summer. l. bipinnatisect; the segments pinnatifidly cut into acute lobes. Stem fistular. h. 2ft. to 3ft. South Europe, 1597. Perennial. (A. F. P. 43; J. F. A. 151.)