126 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 



CARAWAY.— C ARUM. 



Natural order, Umbellatce. A genus of the 

 Pentandria Digynia class. 



Modern botanists pronounce this plant to 

 be a native of Britain, and from its growing 

 so freely in our island we might have claimed 

 it as indigenous to our soil, but the origin of 

 its name, and the positive manner in which 

 Pliny mentions from whence it sprang, refute 

 this opinion. 



Pliny says, " The caraway is a stranger, 

 and it is named from its native soil, Caria:" 

 the same author states, that the second in 

 quality came from Phrygia, — both countries 

 in Asia Minor.* He says, it will grow in 

 most places, and that its seed is in great de- 

 mand in the kitchen for culinary purposes. 

 Dioscorides, who wrote on medicinal herbs 

 in the time of Antony, to whom he was phy- 

 sician, states likewise that it is called Carum, 



* Pliny, book xix. chap. 8. 



