UMBELLIFERAE (PARSLEY FAMILY) 305 



(Thdspium barbinode), also yellow-flowered, but larger, its ternately 

 compound leaves broader and more coarsely toothed, and 

 having tiny tufts of fine hair at each joint. 



Means of control 



Frequent close cutting before seed development, using dry salt 

 in order to retard new growth. 



WILD PARSNIP 

 Pastinaca satwa, L. 



Other English names: Field Parsnip, Madnep, Tank. 



Introduced. Biennial. Propagates by seeds. 



Time of bloom : June to August. 



Seed-time: August to October. 



Range: All parts of the United States and Canada. 



Habitat: Roadsides and waste places. 



" Pastm" means food, and, as its name indicates, this is the 

 garden Parsnip, long ago " gone to the bad," for its thick, white, 

 fleshy root is no longer a food but a poison, even after it has been 

 cooked a fact which is every year demonstrated by several 

 deaths. 



Crown leaves of the first year large, often eighteen inches in 

 length, with long, flattened, and grooved petioles : pinnate, the 

 segments thin, sessile, ovate, coarsely and sharply toothed, often 

 cut-lobed. Fruiting stem two to four feet tall, hollow, grooved, 

 smooth, its leaves much smaller and clasping. Umbel compound, 

 without involucre or involucels, the flowers very many, small, and 

 yellow. Carpels nearly one fourth of an inch long, broadly oval, 

 much flattened, surrounded by a thin, corky ridge which helps 

 them to float on water or to be carried by the wind. This weed, 

 like the Wild Carrot, serves as host to the fungus which is so inju- 

 rious to celery, and will infect that plant when it grows near it. 



Means of control 



Hand-pulling when the ground is soft in spring. Spudding or 

 hoercutting the root leaves from their crowns, an operation best 



