CULINARY HERBS 75 



Since caraway seeds were found by O'Heer in 

 the debris of the lake habitations of Switzerland, 

 the fact seems well established that the plant is a 

 native of Europe and the probability is increased 

 that the Carcum of Pliny is this same plant, as its 

 use by Apicus would also indicate. It is mentioned 

 in the twelfth-century writings as grown in Mo- 

 rocco, and in the thirteenth by the Arabs. As a 

 spice, its use in England seems to have begun at the 

 close of the fourteenth century. From its Asiatic 

 home it spread first with Phoenician commerce to 

 western Europe, whence by later voyageurs it has 

 been carried throughout the civilized world. So 

 widely has it been distributed that the traveler may 

 find it in the wilds of Iceland and Scandinavia, the 

 slopes of sunny Spain, the steeps of the Himalayas, 

 the veldt of southern Africa, the bush of Australia, 

 the prairies and the pampas of America. 



Caraway is largely cultivated in Morocco, and is 

 an important article of export from Russia, Prussia, 

 and Holland. It has developed no clearly marked 

 varieties ; some specimens, however, seem to be more 

 distinctly annual than others, though attempts to 

 isolate these and thus secure a quick-maturing va- 

 riety seem not to have been made. 



Description. — The fleshy root, about Yi inch in 

 diameter, is yellowish externally, whitish within, 

 and has a slight carroty taste. From it a rosette of 

 finely pinnated leaves is developed, and later the 

 sparsely leaved, channeled, hollow, branching flower 

 stem which rises from i8 to 30 inches and during 

 early summer bears umbels of little white flowers 



