88 



The Livmg Thifigs of the Earth unit i 



Fig. 123 TP/W carrot. Another name is Qiteen 

 Anne''s lace. This is a nieiiiber of the parsley 

 family. (uRooKi.-i x hoianic garden) 



the daisies are gone. Related to it is the 

 carrot which is raised as a vegetable, the 

 many parsnips, both wild and cultivated, 

 and celerv. Like the potato family, it 

 also has its "black sheep," the poison 

 hemlock, which yields a powerful poi- 

 son. The ancient Greeks used a drink 

 brewed from it to put Socrates to death. 

 Of course, the poison hemlock is not at 

 all closely related to the evergreen tree 

 named hemlock. 



Tlie mint family. You have met some 

 of the members of the large mint fam- 

 ily: peppermint, spearmint, pennyroyal 

 (sometimes used against mosquitoes), 

 and sage. Some are used to lend flavor to 

 food, but some species of this family lack 

 (la\()r (ti- otior. Ihc flowers are for the 

 most part small. Ihe'stems are four-sided. 



Plant families that have proved useful 

 in various wavs. \\ hen Cohinibus Jainicd 



Fig. 124 The white floivers and red berries of 

 the coffee tree. Each berry contains two coffee 

 '''' beans.'''' (American can co.) 



on the shores of South America he found 

 the natives playing with a black ball 

 that apparently moved and seemed alive. 

 Several centuries later the substance of 

 which the ball was made came into gen- 

 eral use in Europe for "rubbing" out ink 

 and pencil marks. That was the white 

 man's first introduction to "rubber," as 

 he soon learned to call it. Rubber is 

 made from a milky liquid produced by 

 numerous tropical trees belonging to 

 many different families. It can be ob- 

 tained from other plants also. 



I'^u" older than the rubber industry is 

 the raising of cotton plants. The fruits, 

 when ripe, burst open sho^\•ing a fluffy 

 mass of white threads, w hich arc attached 

 to the seeds. See I'igure ^ ^9, page 390. 

 The cotton gin is used to separate the 

 seeds from the "cotton." The seeds them- 

 selves are squeezed to remove their valu- 



