UMBELLIFER &. ee 
Greeks cultivated the carrot (cragvdivos) and also the Romans ° 
who called it Pastinaca erratica. Itis clearly described by Dios- 
rides, and his commentator Marcellus Vergilius remarks that 
Pliny says “ Est et quartum genus in eadem similitudine 
_ pastinace nascens, quam nostri Gallicam vocant, Greeci vero 
daucon.” From this we may couclude that the Daucus was like 
the pastinaca erratica or carrot, but not the same plant. 
The carrot was also called by the Greeks xépas from its simi- 
larity to a horn ; in the old Greek lexicons we read “ craqvhivos 
dypwos dv vio nip kadovor’”’. The Daucus of the Greeks, according 
to Dioscorides, was of three kinds, the best or Cretan kind had 
acrid, white, hairy, odoriferous fruit; the second kind was 
a plant like Celery, with a pungent taste and aromatic odoar ; 
and the third kind had an acrid fruit, having the appearance of 
Cumin. The first kind is generally considered to have been 
a species of Athamanta growing in Crete. Of the third kind, 
Gronovius says :—“ Daucus tertius Dioscoridis, incolis Zarneb, 
Melchi, Rauwolf. Hodoep., Pt. I. c. 9, p. 116 et Pt. IL, c. 2, 
p-146. Seseli Cretense nodosum umbella lutea, Moris. Hist. 
ii., p. 287, f. 9.” (See Trachydiwm.) Apicius, a writer on 
_ cookery, about A. D. 2380, mentions an edible root called 
_ Carota, which no doubt was the same as our Carrot ; ; as is also 
s the Gazar of the Persians and the Jazar of the Arabians, which 
_ they do not identify with the Daucus of Dioscorides, but with 
his Staphylinos. The old writers on Materia Medica describe 
_ Carrots as hot in the extreme of the second degree, moist 
_ in the first, diuretic, laxative, emollient, strengthening the 
venereal faculty, emmenagogue and antiseptic. A decoction 
of carrots was long a popular remedy for jaundice in Europe, 
and the dried péduticle { is a favourite toothpick among the Arabs 
“on account ofits aroma. In India, the seeds are popularly 
Supposed to cause abortion, and are kept by ull the native 
4 druggists. In those parts of the country where the _ * 2 
more powerful antiseptics, but the fruits still hold 
Rt our stimulant coor the action be 
