UMBELLIFERAE (PARSLEY FAMILY) 307 



blisters. Flowers white, occasionally purplish, the flattened com- 

 pound umbel sometimes a foot broad ; individual flowers often more 

 than a quarter-inch broad, particularly the enlarged outer ones, with 

 the five petals notched at the outer edge; involucre deciduous. 

 Carpels obovate, nearly a half-inch long, flattened, with winged 

 margin and notched apex, the oil-tubes extending only part way 

 down the sides. The weed is dangerous to cattle, when growing 

 about their drinking places, at the time of starting shoots in spring ; 

 later they avoid it. (Fig. 213.) 



Means of control 



The plant is persistent because of its large root, which needs to 

 be grubbed out or deeply cut and treated with dry salt or kerosene. 



WILD CARROT 

 Daucus Carota, L. 



Other English names: Queen -Anne's Lace, Bird's Nest Weed, 



Devil's Plague. 



Introduced. Biennial. Propagates by seeds. 

 Time of bloom: June to September. 

 Seed-time: August to December. 



Range: Throughout North America except the far North. 

 Habitat : All soils ; meadows, pastures, roadsides, and waste places. 



This plant is said to be the progenitor of the cultivated carrot, 

 but its long, tapering root has none of the succulent sweetness 

 which careful selection and cultivation has given to its descend- 

 ants ; on the contrary, it is filled with woody fibers, acrid to taste 

 and said to be poisonous. Only a crown of green leaves is pro- 

 duced the first season; these are twice or thrice pinnate, the 

 segments lance-shaped and toothed, giving the plant a fine, feathery 

 appearance; petioles long, slender, swollen at base, grooved on 

 the upper side; the leaves are rough-hairy, have an unpleasant 

 odor when bruised, and their acrid juices protect them from grazing 

 animals. Flower-stalks appear the second year, one to three feet 

 tall, erect, slender, branching, bristly with stiff hairs, bearing few, 

 sessile, and clasping leaves; flowers clustered, in large, flat, com- 

 pound umbels, white, except that there is usually one in the center 



