One or two feet high, occasionally much taller. Stems. - Branching. Leaves. - Dissected into fine, thread-like divisions. Flowers. - White, very small, growing in compound umbels with thread-like bracts.

This plant blossoms all summer in wet meadows, both inland and along the coast; but it is especially common in the salt-marshes near New York City. It probably owes its English name to the fancied resemblance between the bracted flower-clusters and a bishop's cap. Its effect is feathery and delicate.