ILLUSTRATIONS. 97 



and collected into close hard heads^ each consisting of two car- 

 pels — each having the appearance of a seed and being called 

 a mericarp — and marked outside with five prominent ridges, 

 with a vitta or oil-cyst in each furrow. When separate, the 

 two carpels of each fruit have a general semicircular section ; 

 a section of the whole showing an oval figure. Such fruits 

 are said to be laterally compressed, and they separate across 

 their narrow diameter. The examination of the fruit in the 

 ripe state is essential to a thorough knowledge of this Umbel- 

 liferous family. A thin cleanly cut horizontal slice examined 

 by a magnifying glass, will show both the outline, and the 

 ridges and oil-cysts. If very hard, the fruits may be soaked 

 in hot water before cutting them. 



In another example of this large and important family, 

 the common Parsnip,^ we have, instead of a poison, a bland 

 and nutritious esculent — not indeed in the wild form of the 

 species, found abundantly in chalky fields and thickets, but 

 in that form of it which has been produced by cultivation. 

 Here too we have a coarse-growing herb, but of annual or 

 biennial duration only, furnished with a long tap-root, which 

 has been improved into the edible Parsnip of our gardens. 

 The stem is two or three feet high, furnished ^ith pinnate 

 leaves, having from five to nine large, sharply toothed, more 

 or less deeply lobed segments. The umbels of flowers are 

 compound, of from eight to twelve rays, and usually without 

 involucres. The flowers themselves are yellow, but otherwise 

 very much like those just described. The fruits however are 

 very different, being flattened from front to back, and broadly 

 winged, hence they appear flat and oval ; they have three fine 

 scarcely prominent ribs, and a vitta in each of the interstices, 

 and they separate along their greatest diameter, forming two 



* Fastinaca sativa — Plate 13 B. 



