UMBELLIFEll^. Ill 



SPECIES II.— C ARUM CARVI. Linn. 



Plate DLXXXII. 



Reich. Ic. Fl. Germ, et Helv. Vol. XXI. Tab. 1872. 



Billot, Fl. Gall, et Germ. Exsicc. No. 188G. 



Bunium Carvi, Bieh. Gr. & Godr. Fl. de Fr. Vol. I. p. 729. 



Hoot a tapering tap-root. Leaves radical the first year, narrowly 

 triangular in outline, bipinnate, again cut into strapshaped pointed 

 segments ; segments nearly in one plane ; stem-leaves numerous. 

 Involucre and involucel none, or of single leaves. 



In waste places and pastures. Not uncommon, but with little 

 claim to l3e considered truly native. In Yorkshire and Lincolnshire, 

 however, it appears perfectly naturalized. 



[England, Scotland.] Biennial. Summer. 



Hoot fusiform, with a brownish wrinkled rind, producing 

 numerous stalked radical leaves, 6 to 9 inches long ; pinntc 

 numerous, again pinnate, with the segments wedge-shaped, un- 

 equally partite, and cleft. Stem 1 to 2 feet high, erect, striate, 

 corymbosely branched, with very numerous spreading-ascending 

 branches. Umbels slightly irregular, the rays f to 1\ inch long ; 

 umbellules rather irregular, rays i to J inch long. Elowers n, inch 

 across, white, distinctly radiant. Cremocarp rather more than -g- 

 inch long, resembling that of C. verticillatum, but rather narrower 

 in proportion to its length, and with the styles not J- the length 

 of the cremocarp, and the vittsp considerably smaller in diameter. 

 Plant glabrous, bright-green, the lower leaves soon turning yellow, 

 or tinged with red. 



Common Caraway. 



Frencli, Carum caroi. German, Gemeiner Kiimmel. 



No part of this plant is so familiar to us as the fruit?, which ai*e vulgarly called 

 seeds, which, from the warm, pleasant, aromatic oil they contain, are much used in 

 confectionery as an addition to cakes, and laigely as a nucleus for the balls of sugar so 

 well liked by all children, and called caraway comfits. The practice of putting them 

 into cakes is very old, those given to the farm labourers at harvest home and wheat- 

 sowing, in Tusser's time, being flavoured with caraways. They are sometimes put in 

 heei-, and are sold largely for that purpose. The essential oil yielded by tliese fruits is 

 antispasmodic and carminative : one pound of the seeds is said to yield four ounces of 

 the oil. It is admitted into the British Pharmacopoeia as a medicine. In Germany, the 

 fruits fresh and finely powdered and mixed with a small quantity of ginger and salt, are 

 spread on bread and butter and eaten daily, especially in the morning and just before 

 going to bed at night, as a domestic remedy for hysterics. The dish of caraways with 

 which Justice Shallow is said to have regaled Falstafi" is usually supposed to have been 

 the tender leaves, which used to be boiled and eaten as a vegetable ; but we incline to 

 think it was some form of confectionery into which the fruits entered ; the invitation 



