156 DESCRIPTIVE BOTANY. 



iu the gardens throughout middle Europe and the British Islets ; it was brought 

 to northeastern America by English colonists, and has spread over the whole 

 country, but is rarely seen outside of cultivation. It was used by the Greeks 

 and inhabitants of the Levant to decorate the bridesmaids at the marriage 

 feast, to make wreaths, and to adorn graves. A superstition is also attached 

 to it which no doubt arose from its connection with the dead. 



Use. — Parsley is used as a flavoring herb iu soups, sauces, and in meat and 

 fish stews. To garnish meats, fish, and salads, there is perhaps no flavoring 

 herb more widely used. 



The medicinal properties of parsley, as well as its flavoring quality, are due 

 to an active principle known to chemists as apiol. This substance is said to 

 have the same effect upon the human syst&m as quinine, and was formerly 

 used in intermittent fevers. Infusions of the roots are administered as a cure 

 for fevers and affections of the liver. 



2. C. Carui, L. (Caraway.) Stem smooth, channeled, branching, 3 feet 

 in height. Leaves smooth, deep-green, bipinnate, cut; segments narrow, 

 linear, pointed. Flowers numerous, in terminal umbels ; involucre com- 

 posed of narrow leaflets, sometimes wanting ; petals 5, nearly equal, white or 

 pinkish ; filaments slender, rather longer than the petals ; anthers small, 

 roundish ; ovary inferior, bearing short capillary styles with simple stigmas. 

 Seeds two, bent, one quarter of an inch long, brown ; striae 5, the mterspaces 

 furrowed; seed ripens at the end of the second season. Root fusiform and 

 edible. 



Geography. — The geographical range of the caraway is between 42° and 

 60° of the north temperate zone, and it is said by A. de Candolle to be 

 indigenous in a belt from Lapland to Siberia. It grows in Great Britain and 

 all parts of the continent south of 60°. It is also found in northern Africa, 

 Hindustan, and Burmah. 



Etymology. — Carui is derived from carum, whose etymology is given under 

 parsley. 



Histoni. — Mention was made of the caraway in an account of Morocco in 

 the twelfth century. In the fourteenth century a custom of eating caraway 

 seeds with apples had been established in England. To this custom Shake- 

 speare refers in Henry IV., Part II., Act V., Sc. 3, where Shallow addres.ses 

 Silence : " Nay, you shall see mine orchard, where, in an arbor, we will eat a 

 last year's pippin of my own graflfing, with a dish of caraways, and so forth." 

 The custom of eating baked apples with caraway seeds is still kept up at one 

 of the colleges of the University of Cambridge, England, and at the ceremo- 

 nial feasts of some of the London livery companies. 



Pliny makes Caria the home of the caraway ; if so, it must have spread 

 rapidly, for it is growing in most parts of Europe without cultivation. It is 

 common in the gardens of northeast America, and is frequently found outside 

 of cultivation. 



Use. — The root of the caraway plant is eaten as a table vegetable in the 

 north of Europe. The seeds are employed to flavor bread, cake, confectionery, 

 pastry, and cheese; and in Russia, Sweden, Germany, and in parts of the 

 United States, to flavor alcoholic cordials. 



An essential oil (oil of caraway) is procured from the seed by distillation, 

 large quantities of which are made in Leipzig. As a medicine, it is aromatic 

 and stimulant, and much used to disguise the unpleasant taste of other drugs. 

 Manufacturers of fancy soap use it in large quantities. 



