140 CARKOT. 



Description. — The root is perennial, fusiform, slender, firm, 

 somewhat woody *, of a yellowish colour, penetrating deep into 

 the soil, and furnished here and there with small rootlets. The 

 stem is erect, cylindrical, branched, somewhat furrowed, hairy, 

 and rises between two and three feet in height. The lower 

 leaves are large, bipinnate ; those of the stem gradually de- 

 crease in size, and become tripinnate, with linear-lanceolate 

 acute segments ; they are all petiolate, of a deep green colour, 

 and clothed with short hairs, the footstalks nerved beneath. 

 The umbels are large, terminal, composed of several radii, and 

 form a plane surface at the top, when in flower, but as they ap- 

 proach maturity they contract and become concave ; the flowers 

 are small and generally white, except the solitary abortive one 

 in the centre of the umbel, which is of a purplish colour. The 

 general involucre is composed of many pinnatifid leaves ; the 

 partial one is more simple, undivided or three-cleft. The calyx 

 consists of five small obscure teeth. The five petals are in- 

 versely heart-shaped, with the point inflexed ; the outer often 

 radiant, and deeply bifid. The filaments are spreading, fili- 

 form, and longer than the corolla, with oblong anthers. The 

 germen is inferior, ovate, imperfect in the outermost and central 

 flowers ; the styles are filiform, spreading, dilated at the base, 

 and terminated by obtuse stigmas. The fruit is oblong, com- 

 pressed at the back ; each carpel is marked with five filiform 

 bristly ridges, of which the the two lateral are on the inner face, 

 and four secondary prominent ridges, with one row of prickles ; 

 the interstices are under the secondary ridges, with single vittae. 

 Plate 11, fig. 1, («) floret somewhat magnified; (6) the ripe 

 fruit magnified. 



The wild Carrot, or Bird's-nest, as it is fiiiniliarly called, is 

 amongst the most common of the um1)elliferous plants, growing 

 abundantly on the borders of fields and in pastures, in nearly 

 all temperate climates. It is a biennial, flowering in July, and 

 ripening its seed in September. 



This plant, the ^ayxoj of the ancient Greek authors, is sup- 

 posed to have derived its name from oac.', to make hot, on ac- 



* This (le&cription, of course, is only juirtially applicable to the cultivated 

 varisty. 



