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subject it may be mentioned, as not a little remarkable, that so many 

 of OTU- garden esculents should be derived from sea-side plants, thus, 

 probably carrots, but certainly celery, sea-kale, asparagus, and 

 cabbage. This would seem to point to the fact that cultivation requires 

 a complete change of the circumstances necessary to maintain a wild 

 condition ; and hence cultivated plants can only be kept up by the 

 labours of a cultivator. Now whether the D. maritima is really a species 

 is doubtful ; I quite agree with Bentham in considering it as a variety 

 of D. Carota ; speaking of the former he says it is "a decidedly maritime 

 variety, with leaves somewhat fleshy, with shorter segments, more or 

 less thickened peduncles, more spreading umbels, more flattened prickles 

 to the finiits, is often considered as a distinct species." 



Quite as doubtful, too, do I consider it as to whether the Carrot or 

 Parsnip are original wild natives of Great Britain. They are both 

 amongst the earliest of our introduced plants, and they would appear 

 to be both of southern and eastern origin ; southern Europe and 

 Asiatic Kussia being the aboriginal localities for these plants. 



They have both spread throughout the States in like manner as with 

 ourselves, but they are not claimed as natives. 



I have not had time to investigate the literature of these two plants, 

 which I shall yet hope to do ; in the mean time I leave the matter in the 

 hands of our Club, feeling assured that it will elicit some interesting 

 discussion. 



