CARAWAY 



109 



wild, but possibly only naturalised. It is cultivated principally 

 in Holland, but Sweden, Norway, Russia, Germany, and Morocco 

 also produce caraways, whilst a small quantity is grown in England. 

 When the fruit ripens, the plant is cut and the caraways are separated 

 by thrashing. 



Description. The ovary of the caraway is inferior and two-celled ; 

 as it ripens it develops into a schizocarp, that is, a fruit which separates 

 into its component carpels by their splitting away from the central 

 axis (carpophore), to which, however, they remain attached. Each 

 complete fruit is termed a cremocarp (a variety of schizocarp), and 



FIG. 59. Caraway fruit. A, entire fruit, side 

 view magnified 3 diam. B, longitudinal 

 section, magnified 3 diam. C, transverse 

 section : /*, vittse ; K, ridges, magnified 14 

 diam. D, portion of the same, further 

 enlarged ; i, pericarp ; T, seedcoat. (Berg.) 



FIG. 60 Caraway fruit. 

 Mericarp, magnified. 

 6 diam. 



each half -fruit a mericarp, the mutually apposed inner faces of which 

 are the commissures or commissural surfaces. 



The cremocarp of the caraway easily separates into its constituent 

 mericarps, and the commercial drug consists almost entirely of separate 

 mericarps, about 4 to 6 mm. long, very narrow, tapering at each end, 

 and slightly curved. They are quite glabrous, brown, and traversed 

 from base to apex by five narrow raised yellow ridges or ' costse ' 

 (fig. 59 C and D, K). Each of these (primary) ridges contains a 

 fibro-vascular bundle, and this distinguishes them from other 

 (secondary) ridges which some Umbelliferous fruits (coriander) possess. 

 In caraway fruits no secondarj^ ridges are present. In the depressions 

 (' intercostal regions ') between these ridges, embedded in the pericarp 

 of the fruit and extending from base to apex, lie elongated oil-glands 

 (vittse, fig. 59 C and D, //,). In the caraway there are four such 

 vittse on the dorsal and two on the commissural surface of each 



