444 UMBELLIFER^ 



gardens also included in this order are Celery {Apium graveokns 

 L.), Parsley {Carum Petroselinum Benth.), and Caraway {Carum 

 Carui L.). 



A number of species of Umbelliferse are important on account 

 of their poisonous qualities ; the chief ones are mentioned later. 

 A few are weeds of the farm, but practically none of these need 

 serious attention. 



3. Wild Carrot {Daucus Carota L.). — A well-known plant com- 

 mon in dry pastures and on roadsides throughout the country. It 

 most frequently behaves as an annual, though it is occasionally 

 biennial. With the exception of its root, which is comparatively 

 thin and woody, it resembles the cultivated forms in stem, leaf, 

 flower, and fruit. 



The wild carrot affords one of the best examples of the 

 possibility of rapid modification of plants by special selection 

 and improved cultivation. M. Vilmorin raised passable garden 

 varieties with thick fleshy ' roots ' and of biennial habit in four 

 generations from the wild species, and there is no doubt that all 

 the cultivated forms of carrot have been derived from the same 

 source. 



4. Cultivated Carrot. 



Seed and Germination. — The so-called carrot 'seed' used 

 for raising a crop consists of the mericarps of the fruit (see 

 below). 



The young seedling possesses two long narrow cotyledons, a 

 well-marked hypocotyl which at first grows above ground, and a 

 slender primary tap root (i. Fig. 135). The hypocotyl and root are 

 quite distinct from each other in colour and general appearance 

 in the early stages of growth. 



Root and Hypocotyl. —Without going into the internal ana- 

 tomy it is always possible in very young seedlings to distinguish 

 these two parts of the plant. 



The hypocotyl is free from roots, but the primary root bears a 

 number of secondary ones chiefly in four longitudinal rows. 



