In the following account the primary divisions of the leaves are referred to as segments and the ultimate divisions, cut nearly or quite to the midrib, as lobes. The lobes may themselves sometimes be deeply lobed. The leaves are never truly pinnate, but are described as pinnate, for brevety, when the lamina is divided to the midrib. Descriptions of umbels refer to the teminal, or other, well-develloped umbel: lateral umbels are often smaller, with fewer rays, and may be entirely male. Bract are the structures which subtend the primary branches (rays) of a compound umbel, and bracteoles are those which subtend the patail umbel, or the whole of a simple umbel. When the stylopodium is described, the description refers to the stylopodium of a hermaphrodite flower. Descriptions of the ridges of the fruit refer to the primary ridges, unless otherwise specified.
Ripe fruit is essential for the certain identification of some genera, though with a little experience the characters of of the ripe fruit can often be deduced from the carefull examination of unripe fruit or even from the ovary. Some genera which have the ripe fruit strongly compressed and winged (e.g. Peucedanum) do not show these characters when young.
It has recently been shown that the seedlings and pollen provide generic characters. As information is available so far for little more than half the European genera it has not been practical the use it in the following account.