D A U 



THE UNIVERSAL HERBAL) 



D A U 



into several strong branches ; leaves oblong, heart-shaped. 

 Stems, branches, and leaves, covered with soft hairs. The 

 flowers come out at the divisions of the stalk and branches, 

 standing erect ; they are large, white, and are succeeded by 

 oval fruit, covered with long, soft, innocuous spines, anil 

 opening within in four cells, full of brown seeds. Native of 

 VeraCruz. In favourable seasons, this will rise in the spring, 

 from scattered seeds ; and when the summer proves warm, 

 will flower, and even perfect its seeds. 



Daucus ; a genus of the class Pentandria, order Digynia. 

 GENERIC CHARACTER. Calix : umbel universal mani- 

 fold, flowering, flat, fruiting concave-converging ; partial 

 manifold, similar. Involucre: universal many-leaved, length 

 of the umbel; leaflets linear, pinnatifid; partial more simple, 

 length of the umbellule. Perianth . proper, scarce manifest. 

 Corolla: universal difform, somewhat rayed ; flosculesof the 

 disk abortive; properof five petals, inflex-hearted, the exterior 

 ones larger. Stamina: filamenta five, capillary; antherse 

 simple. Pistil: germen inferior, small ; styles two, reflex; 

 stigmas obtuse. Pericarp: none; fruit ovate, often hispid on 

 every side, with stiff hairs, bipartite. Seeds : two, somewhat 

 ovate, on one side convex, hispid, on the other flat. ESSEN- 

 TIAL CHARACTER. Corolla .- subradiate, all hermaphrodite. 

 Fruit : hispid with hairs ; according to Goertner, muricate 

 with prickles, forming longitudinal crests. The species are, 



1. Daucus Carota ; H'M Carrot, or Bird's Nest. Seeds 

 hispid ; petioles nerved underneath. In its wild state, the 

 common Carrot has a slender, hard, whitish, or brownish fusi- 

 form root; stem upright, grooved, hispid, two feet high, with 

 alternate brandies, which are commonly from seven to nine 

 or ten inches long, have one leaf on them, except the primary 

 or terminating one, which is naked, and a single umbel of 

 flowers at top. The flowers are white, those in the middle 

 sometimes tinged with purple, and fertile ; but those in the 

 circumference, which are irregular and larger than the others, 

 are frequently either neuter, or have pistils only. The fruit 

 is spheroidal, composed of two plano-convex seeds, on the 

 back of which are four membranaceous narrow crests, pec- 

 tinated with linear-setaceous, innocuous, flexible teeth ; and 

 between these, three raised nerves, having very minute 

 prickles on them along each side, bowing outwards ; the 

 belly is flat or slightly concave, marked with obscure longitu- 

 dinal streaks. It is common in pastures, on balks and head- 

 lands ; and is a biennial, flowering from June till August. 

 Carrot seeds have been recommended as a powerful diuretic, 

 and an infusion of them has been found to give relief in tits 

 of the gravel and stone. They have a slight aromatic smell, 

 and a warm pungent taste. They communicate an agreeable 

 flavour to malt liquour, if infused in it while working in the 

 vat, and render it an useful drink in scorbutic disorders. 

 They have not only been used as diuretics, and in the stone 

 and gravel, but to disperse wind in the stomach ; and, as they 

 operate very powerfully by urine, they are excellent in ob- 

 structions of the viscera, in the jaundice, suppressions of 

 the menses, and in the beginning of dropsies. A poultice 

 made of the roots, has been found to mitigate the pain of 

 foul cancerous ulcers, and remove the intolerable stench. 

 Mr. Miller informs us that the shops are supplied with old 

 seeds of the garden Carrot, instead of fresh seeds of the wild 

 plant. This is one of the many ways in which efficacious 

 medicines are brought into disrepute; but the remedy con- 

 sists in every person's gathering wild Carrot seeds fresh for 

 himself He informs us, that he cultivated the wild Carrot for 

 many years, but could never get the seeds which were sown 

 in the spring to grow, but that part of the seeds which he 

 sowed in autumn came up well. These plants he treated in 



the same manner as the garden Carrot, but could not in the 

 least improve the root, for they invariably continued to be 

 small, sticky, andof a hot biting taste; from whence he incon- 

 clusively infers, that the wild Carrot and the garden Carrot 

 are specifically different. This conclusion, however, is not 

 to be admitted ; for the improvement has probably been thr 

 effect of accident, orof time and care in a warmer climate ; 

 and the uncultivated plants, if left to themselves in a dry 

 undunged soil, would probably relapse into their primitive 

 state. Mr. Kay observed a variety of the wild Carrot on 

 the sea-shore near Dover, with leaves of a dark green and 

 glossy colour. Dr. Stokes adds, that in a specimen from the 

 coast of Cornwall, the leaflets are remarkably broad, and but 

 slightly cut. Moles are so fond of the roots, that Carrots 

 are a proper bait to ensnare them with ; but garden Carrots 

 answer best for that purpose, as well as for destroying crickets, 

 being made into a paste with powdered arsenic and wheat- 

 meal. The females of this polished age will smile at the sim- 

 plicity of ancient times, when they arc informed, that the 

 autumnal beauty of Carrot leaves allured many gentlewomen 

 formerly often times to stick them in their hats or heads, or pin 

 them on their arms, instead of feathers. The Garden Car- 

 rot is three feet high in its flowering state, and differs but little 

 from the wild one, except in the largeness and succulency of 

 the plant, and particularly of the root, which, with its supe- 

 rior size, usually takes a tincture of yellow, in different shade*, 

 as far as a deep orange, and becomes of a softer texture, 

 without any of that acrimony and aromatic flavour, which are 

 found in the wild root. There are several varieties, differing 

 in the colour of their roots, as white, yellow, orange, and dark 

 red or purple, which variations may be perpetuated by sim- 

 ply observing not to mix them together in the same garden. 

 In London, the orange Carrot is most generally esteemed. 

 Mr. Miller conceives the red or purpleCarrot to be a distinct 

 sort; it is much more tender than the others, insomuch thut 

 the roots were all destroyed by the first frosts in autumn : the 

 seeds were sent from Aleppo, and the roots were smaller than 

 the common sort, and purple, like a deep-coloured radish, very 

 tender and sweet, with leaves more finely cut and less hairy 

 than those of the common Carrot. Propagation mid Culture. 

 The Carrot is commonly cultivated in gardens for the kitchen: 

 they are propagated at two or three different seasons, and 

 sometimes oftener, where people are fond of young Carrots. 

 The first season for sowing the seeds is soon after Christnuvs, 

 when the weather is open ; they should be sown in warm 

 borders, near walls, pales, or hedges, but not close to them, 

 which would draw them up weak, and prevent them from pro- 

 ducing any tolerable roots; theydelight in a warm , light, sandy 

 soil, which should be dug pretty deep, that the roots may 

 be better run down, for if they meet with any obstruction, 

 they are very apt to grow forked, and shoot out lateral roots, 

 especially where the ground is too much dunged in the sainr 

 year that the seeds are sown, which will al^o cause them to 

 be worm-eaten : it is best therefore to dung the ground in- 

 tended for Carrots the year before they are sown, that the 

 manure may be consumed and mixed with the earth ; but in 

 such places where there has not been ground so prepared the 

 year before, and there may be a necessity for dunging it in 

 the same year that the Carrots are sown, the dung should 

 be well rotted, and thinly scattered over the ground ; while in 

 digging it into the ground, care should be taken to distribute 

 it equally, and not to bury it in heaps, which would stop the 

 roots of the Carrots in their downright growth, and c.i'ine 

 them to be short and forky. Where the ground is inclined 

 to binding, too much trouble cannot be taken to break and 

 divide the parts ; hence in digging land for Carrots, large 



