540 BOTANY OF CROP PLANTS 



I. Plain Parsley. — ^Leaves plain, not curled. 



2.. Double Curled, Dark Moss-curled, Fern-leaved Parsley. — 

 Leaves curled. 



The turnip-rooted or Hamburg parsley is a type bearing 

 a small, fleshy root, which is the edible part of the plant. 



APIUM GRAVEOLENS (Celeiy and Celeriac) 



Description. — This species is either annual or biennial in 

 habit, most commonly the latter. When grown from seed, 

 there is formed, in the cultivated sorts, a clump of leaves with 

 thick, fleshy leaf stalks. The leaf stalks are the edible por- 

 tions of common celery. If the plants have been stunted 

 or set back in their development, seed stalks may be sent 

 up the first season. Of course, in celery growing, the 

 "seeders" are undesirable and every, effort is made to pre- 

 vent their appearance. Normally, however, seed stalks are 

 sent up from the short rootstock the second season. This 

 stem is erect, glabrous, and i to 3 feet high. The leaves are 

 pinnately compound with three to five oval, coarsely toothed 

 or incised leaf segments. The small white flowers are in 

 umbels. Involucre and involucels are small or wanting. 

 The fruit is oval, flattened laterally, and has corky ribs. 

 The oil tubes are solitary in the intervals and two in number 

 on the commissural side. 



Geographical. — Apium graveolens, the wild form giving rise to our cultivated 

 celery and celeriac, is a native of Europe. In eastern United States, it has 

 escaped from cultivation, and it is said that in the salt marshes of California 

 it has become naturalized. 



Types and Varieties. — There are two types into which the 

 cultivated celery has been modified by breeding and selec- 

 tion: (i) common celery, with enlarged, tender, edible leaf 

 stalks, and (2) celeriac, "German celery" or turnip-rooted 

 celery {A. graveolens var. rapaceum), with a fleshy, turnip- 



