THE PRESENT FLORA OF WEST HAM WASTES. 175
Apium nodiflorum Reichb. Creeping Water Parsnip. A.
Abundant in some parts ; doubtless introduced with mud from
clearing the channels.
Anthriscus sylvestris Hoffm. Wild Chervil or Cow Parsley.
B. Fairly abundant.
Foeniculum vulgare Mill. Fennel. A. One small plant, a
few inches high. In good soil by the Thames at Grays, it attains
the height of 7 or 8 feet. One is apt to expect the fruits of
Umbelliferae to be constant in size as well as in shape, but the
rounded fruits of Fennel vary in length from 3 to 7 mm.
Oenanthe crocata L. Hemlock Water-Dropwort. A, B.
Fairly abundant along the banks of the channels. This poisonous
and handsome plant has thick fleshy root-fibres, sometimes
nearly an inch across, in which starch is stored. Its range is
westerly, being limited to Britain, France to Spain, and Italy.
Archangelica officinalis Hoffm. (syn. Angelica officinalis L.).
Garden Angelica. A, B. This noble Umbellifer is perhaps the
most interesting of the plants we found. It occurs abundantly
along all the tidal streams of the River Lea, above or just within
high water mark. The old hollow fruiting stalks, 2 inches wide
at the base and 6 feet high, end in rounded umbels six inches in
diameter and bearing forty or more rays. The leaves, a yard or
more across, are less regularly pinnate than in the Wild Angelica ;
the vivid green of the young leaves, just now pushing up, makes a
striking feature along the muddy banks : seedling plants abound
between the old stones of the eastern embankment of the Channel-
sea River above the Abbey Mills. The fruit of this Archangelica
differs from that of our Wild Angelica in having the broad lateral
wings of each half, or cremocarp, contiguous, instead of divergent ;
also the fruit walls split into two layers, an outer corky layer,
and a thin inner layer, which with the numerous vittae, or oil
canals, adheres closely to the seed : the air chamber thus formed
adds to the buoyancy of the fruits and enables them to float
uninjured on fresh or brackish water. (See Plate XII.) The
plant is not indigenous in this country, but is a native of
northern Europe, Siberia and Greenland, where the young stalks
are esteemed a delicacy by the inhabitants. I am much
indebted to my friend, Sir Albert Seward, for having had a slide
made for me showing Archangelica thriving luxuriantly on Disko
Island, off the west coast of Greenland, in lat. 700 north; it