132 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 



Theophrastus states, in the ninth book of 

 his History of Plants, that carrots grow in 

 Arcadia, but that the best are found in 

 Sparta. 



Petronius Diodotus reckoned four kinds of 

 this root, but there is reason to think he in- 

 cluded the parsnip with them. 



The ancients used the seed both of the 

 wild and the cultivated carrot, as an internal 

 medicine against the bite of serpents ; they 

 also gave it to animals that had been stung 

 by them ; a dram weight in wine was 

 thought a sufficient dose. 



Gerard calls these plants Daucus Cretensis 

 verus, or Candie carrots, and says, " that the 

 true Daucus of Dioscorides does not grow 

 in Candia only, but is found vpon the 

 mountains of Germanie, and vpon the hils 

 and rocks of Iura, about Geneua, from 

 whence it hath been sent and conueied by 

 one friendly herbarist unto another, into 

 sundrie regions." This author describes 

 the Pastinaca sativa temdfolia, yellow or 

 garden carrot, which, he says, " are so wen 

 in the field and in gardens, where other 

 pot-herbs are : they require a loose and well- 

 manured soil." He adds, " that in his time, 

 the yellow carrot was most commonly boiled 



