No. 133.] 223 



BOTANICAL LEARNING AS TO CARROTS, PARSNIPS, kc. 



Dr. Lindley calls them apiace«p. Umbellifcrs, the flower stems 

 resemble the sticks of the umbrella. They are natives chiefly of 

 the northern parts of the northern hemisphere, and inhabit 

 groves, thickets, marshes and waste places. They are extreme- 

 ly rare in the tropics except at considerable elevation, where they 

 gradually increiise in number as the other parts of the vegetation 

 acquire an extra-tropical or mountain character. Hence although 

 they are hardly known in the plains of India, they abound on 

 the mountains of the Himalaya — however they are not unconi 

 mou in the southern hemisphere. 



Of the harmless kinds in which, with a little aroma, there is 

 Ro considerable quantity of acrid humor or gum-resinous secre- 

 tion, must be more particularly named celery, fennel, samphire, 

 parsley and the ri)ots of carrots, parsnips and skerrits, and seve- 

 ral others. Among the gum-resinous species, those yielding as- 

 safoetida hold the first rank. The fcetid odor of these plants is 

 supposed to be owing to sulphur, in combination with their pe- 

 culiar essential oil. AssafoBtida is the milky juice of various 

 species of ferula, described byKsempfer in his work upon Japan. 

 Burnes found assafcetlda plants on the mountains of the Hindoo 

 Koosh, where they are regarded as a highly nutritous food for 

 aheep. 



Some of the^^e plants give very active purgatives. For their 

 aromatic and carminative (expelling wind) power, the most cel- 

 ebrated are anise, dill, caraway and coriander, and many others. 

 Of the poison in this family, are conium or hemlock, and several 

 more. 



Whortleberry is the fruit of vaccinium uliginosum. The fruit 

 of it is Sdid to bo narcotic, and is sometimes put into beer or other 

 liquor to make them heady — when fermeute<l, it yields an intox- 

 ioaUng liquor. 



When Hudson entered the north river, the Indians were found 

 to be provided with dried whortleberries in considerable quanti- 

 tk«. 



H. MEIGS, Secretary 



