YELLOW AND ORANGE WILD FLOWERS 
They are gathered into many little separated clusters 
that in turn are grouped into a broad, open, flat-topped 
and radiating floral disk or umbel. It is common 
almost everywhere from New Brunswick to Ontario, 
South Dakota, Florida, and Texas. 
WILD PARSNIP. MADNEP. TANK 
Pastinaca sativa, Parsley Family. 
The generic name of this common Parsnip is derived 
from the latin pastus, meaning food, and alludes to the 
edible qualities of the fleshy roots, which, according 
to Pliny, were cultivated along the Rhine before the 
Christian era, and imported by the Roman Emperor, 
Tiberius, and used as a food. The Wild Parsnip 
is a tall, widely branching, long and _ thick-rooted 
biennial herb, raising its tough, grooved, and usually 
smooth stalk from two to five feet in height. The 
alternating, compound, dark green leaf has several 
pairs of pointed oval or oblong leaflets, which are more 
or less lobed and cut, and sharply toothed. They 
are rather thin-textured and smooth-surfaced. The 
upper leaves clasp the stalk, and the lower ones are long- 
stemmed. The numerous tiny yellow flowers are 
gathered in many small clusters that are finally grouped 
on slender stems in several, large, terminal, flat-topped 
disks, similar to, but much larger than the Early 
or Meadow Parsnip. The seeds are thin, flat and 
shiny, and the stalk is so very tough that it is broken 
only with great effort, if indeed it is to be broken at 
all. This Parsnip is very common along roadsides 
156 
