A FEW IMPORTANT PLANT FAMILIES 79 
of garden carrots or parsnips are as good for study as any 
other. Five tiny petals and five stamens are set on top of 
the ovary around the two styles. The 
ovary develops into two seeds that remain 
grown together until they are ripe. In car- 
rots the flower is white, and 
in parsnips, yellow. No other 
's color is found in the flowers of 
this family. 
Most of the plants of this 
group are characterized by 
harmless aromatic properties ComPounp UmBex 
: . : OF GARDEN DILL 
o fower Sk, which give parsnips, carrots, 
two ripened parsley, caraway, and dill their peculiar flavor. 
Sees The family also contains several poisonous 
plants, as water hemlock ; the garden 
parsnip becomes poisonous when ! 
allowed to grow the second year, and ad 
dy . 
PARSNIP 
even the wild carrot is considered K yp 
poisonous. 
The Mustard Family. — The plants 
of this group have a pungent, watery 
juice, for which we relish horse- 
radish, mustard, and radishes. The 
flower may be studied in the com- 
mon wild mustard. There are four 
sepals, four petals, and six stamens, 
two of these being shorter than the 
other four. The fruit is a pod, which 
is divided lengthwise into two cells 
by a thin partition, and has a row yy oon asia tostaae 
of seeds in each cell. very destructive to farm stock. 
\ 
WaTER HEMLOCK 
