White and Greenish 



Ants find the stiff hairs on the stem disagreeable obstacles to 

 pilfering ; but no visitors seem to object to the flowers' suffocating 

 odor. 



One of these lacy, white umbels must be examined under a 

 lens before its delicate structure and perfection of detail can be ap- 

 preciated. Naturally a visitor is attracted first by the largest, most 

 showy florets situated around the outer edge of the wheel, on 

 which he leaves pollen, brought from another umbel; and any 

 vitalizing dust remaining on his under side may be left on the less 

 conspicuous hermaphrodite blossoms as he makes his way toward 

 the centre, where the tiny, pollen-bearing florets are grouped. 

 From the latter, as he flies away, he will carry fresh pollen to the 

 outer row of florets on another umbel, and so on — at least this is 

 the usual and highly advantageous method. After general fertili- 

 zation, the slender flower-stalks curl inward, and the umbel forms 

 a hollow nest that gradually contracts as it dries, almost, if not 

 quite, closing at the top, albeit the fiction that bees and spiders 

 make their home in the seeding umbels circulates freely. 



Still another fiction is that the cultivated carrot, introduced to 

 England by the Dutch in Qiieen Elizabeth's reign, was derived 

 from this wild species. Miller, the celebrated English botanist 

 and gardener, among many others, has disproved this statement 

 by utterly failing again and again to produce an edible vegetable 

 from this wild root. When cultivation of the garden carrot lapses 

 for a few generations, it reverts to the ancestral type — a species 

 quite distinct from Danciis Carota. 



Smoother Sweet-Cicely 



{Washingtonia longistylis) Carrot family 

 {Osmorrhiia longistylis of Gray) 



Floivers — Small, white, s-parted ; in few rayed, long-peduncled 

 umbels, with small bracts below them. Stem: i>2 to 3 ft. 

 high, branching, from thick, fleshy, fragrant, edible roots. 

 Leaves: Lower ones often very large, long-petioled, thrice- 

 compound, and again divided, the leaflets ovate, pointed, 

 deeply toothed, slightly downy ; upper leaves less com- 

 pound, nearly sessile. 



Preferred Habitat — Rich, moist woods and thickets. 



Flowering Season — May — J une. 



Distribution — Nova Scotia to the Carolinas, westward to Dakota. 



Graceful in gesture, with delicate, fernlike leaves, and anise- 

 scented roots that children, like rabbits, delight to nibble, the sweet- 

 cicely attracts attention by its fragrance, however insignificant 



223 



