230 THE FRUITS OF THE COUNTRY-SIDE 



therefore, incidentally, an unusually good crop of unusually 

 good parsnips. 



CARROT (Daucus Carota) 



The bracketing together of parsnips and carrots by 

 Bacon reminds us that in the Carrot, an equally common wild 

 plant, we have another very typical plant carrying its flowers 

 and fruits in this umbellate fashion. It is the parent of 

 the cultivated carrot of our gardens. It should be found 

 flowering during June, July, and August, throwing up 

 numerous heads of white flowers. These heads are flat- 

 topped, but as the fruit begins to ripen the head grows 

 more and more concave, until it becomes at last quite cup- 

 like in form. This peculiarity gives the plant one of its 

 popular names, the bird's-nest, and in Holland and Germany 

 it bears a name of similar import. In the wild state it 

 thrives best on calcareous soils, attaining to a height of 

 some two or three feet, and noticeable from its disks, some 

 three to five inches in diameter, of white blossoms, and its 

 richly-cut_^foliage. Parkinson, writing in 1643, says that 

 the ladies of his day wore the leaves of the carrot in their 

 hair as an adornment. In the Autumn the foliage changes 

 into brilliant yellow and scarlet, and becomes sought after 



in its honest struggling through the darkness to light. He tells us, for instance, 

 that "it is strange that is generally received, how Poysonous Beasts affect 

 Odorate and Wholesome Herbs : As that the Snake loueth Fennell ; that the 

 Toad will be much vnder Sage : that Frogs will be in Cinquefoile," and then — 

 thinking it out, and daring to set his opinion against that of many men of 

 recognised weight and authority — he hazards the idea that " it may be, it is 

 rather the Shade or other Couerture that they take liking in than the Vertues 

 of the Herbe." We can all think so now, but it is more difficult to be the first 

 to question long-standing beliefs. 



