387 



Cfje Er«Htfur|} at Matmv. 



[davy 



generally admitted to be the stock from ' 

 which all the cultivated varieties have ' 

 sprung; although Miller states that he in 

 vain endeavoured to improve the quality 

 of the wild plant by cultivation. As an 

 esculent, the Carrot was known to the an- | 

 cients; and Pliny says the best came to 

 Rome from Candia. Gerarde, writing in 

 1597, tells us they do not grow in Candia 

 only, but are found upon the mountains in 

 Germany, and about Geneva, How or 

 when they were first introduced into this 

 country is unknown, but it is generally 

 believed to have been by the Dutch during 

 the reign of Queen Elizabeth (1558), and 

 that they were first grown about Sandwich, 

 in Kent. 



Scarcely any vegetable is better known, 

 or in greater demand for culinary pur- 

 poses than the Carrot. Its root contains 

 a large portion of saccharine matter, and 

 is used in soups and stews, as well as a 

 vegetable dish during winter. In order 

 to supply the demand for young carrots 

 during the spring and summer, large 

 quantities are grown by artificial heat. 

 The various sorts of Carrots in cultivation 

 are divided into two classes, known as 

 Horn Carrots and Long Carrots : the for- 

 mer short and early; the latter becoming 

 mature in autumn for winter use. 



Parkinson, writing in 1629, says, that in 

 his day ladies wore Carrot leaves in place 

 of feathers ; and Loudon states (Encycl. of 

 Gard., p. 835) that in winter an elegant 

 chimney ornament may be formed by cut- 

 ting off' a section from the head or thick 

 end of a Carrot, containing the bud, and 

 placing it in a shallow vessel of water. 

 Young" and delicate leaves unfold them- 

 selves, forming a radiated tuft of a very 

 handsome appearance. [W. B. B.] 



The Carrot yields two British species, B. 

 Carota and maritimus; but we agree with 

 ■ Sir W.J. Hooker in deeming them 'scarcely 

 I permanently distinct.' The Carrot of the 

 ; garden and farm is a well known deriva- 

 i tion of one of these ; we almost think of 

 I the latter, as our experiments in ennobling 

 the common B. Carota have been unf ortu- 

 j nate, though we have had reports of suc- 

 cess in this experiment by those with 

 whom the ennobling of the parsnip has 

 not succeeded as it has with us. [J. B.] 



DACPHINELLE. (Fr.) Delphinium. 

 DAFRADE. (Fr.) Ceterach offlcinarum. 



D A "VALLIA. A fine and extensive genus 

 of polypodiaceous ferns, typical of the 

 group Bavalliece. They have scaly creeping 

 rhizomes, which feature has given rise to 

 the name of Hare's Foot Fern, applied to 

 D. cano.riensis. The fronds are sometimes 

 pinnate, but more frequently pinnately de- 

 compound, very elegantly cut into multi- 

 tudes of small divisions, and bearing 

 numerous fructifications, which form a 

 series of cups or cysts at the margins of 

 the segments. These cysts assume two 

 somewhat different forms : the one, rather 

 shallow cup-shaped, represented byD.ten air 

 folia and B. aculeata, the latter of which is 



quite scandent and bramble-like in habit; 

 the other tubulose, represented by B. ele- 

 gans and B. solida. The genus is well 

 marked by natural features, and is one of 

 the most elegant to be found in our gar- 

 dens. Several offshoots have been sepa- 

 rated from it, as Acrophorus, Ilniimtn, 

 Loxoscaphe, and Microlepia. [T. MJ 



DAVIESIA. A large genus of New Hol- 

 land and Tasmanian bushes of the pea 

 family, easily recognised among their al- 

 lies with ten free stamens and two ovules, 

 by the form of their pods, which are short, 

 nearly triangular, with a straight upper 

 and a much curved under edge. In some 

 species the leaves are much like those of 

 the juniper, and in a large number they 

 take the form of spines like those seen on 

 the furze, to which plant many of them 

 bear a strong resemblance. In a few the 

 leaves are heart-shaped and embrace the 

 stem ; in others they are oblong ; and a 

 few are entirely destitute of leaves, but in 

 these the stems are usually flattened and 

 perform leaf functions. The flowers are 

 small, usually yellow, sometimes blue or 

 purple, arranged in little tufts or racemes 

 or stalked cymes arising from the axils of 

 the leaves, or from those of little scales 

 where no leaves exist. 



A very common plant in greenhouses, 

 and one of the most beautiful in the ge- 

 nus, is B. latifolia, a native of Tasmania 

 and the south parts of New Holland. This 

 plant has smooth oblong leaves, in the 

 axils of which the pretty yellow flowers are 

 i found disposed in dense erect racemes. 

 j Another scarcely less beautiful species 

 I is B. cordata, the leaves of which, about 

 j the largest in the genus, are sessile, heart- 

 : shaped, acute, and embrace the stems at 

 1 the base ; they are quite smooth and beau- 

 ! tifully veined. The flowers are in stalked 

 j corymbs, each supported by two leafy 

 i bracts which envelope a number of stalked 

 flowers having a yellow standard and a 

 purple keel. B. epiphyllum, a West Aus- 

 , tralian species, is remarkable for having 

 white flattened and variously lobed stems 

 ■ without leaves, but having much the ap- 

 I pearance of the antlers of a stag. The 

 flowers are curiously placed on the middle 

 1 of the flattened portion, and arise from the 

 I axils of little scales, two or more together. 

 B. juncea has rush-like branches devoid 

 I of leaves, and furnished at distant in- 

 tervals with bundles of yellow flowers ; 

 and an allied species has similar but much 

 thicker stems, nearly half an inch in dia- 

 meter, with soft pith-like wood. It would 

 be difficult to point to a genus comprising 

 more diversity of form among its species, 

 of which there are upwards of fifty known. 

 It bears the name of the Rev. Mr. Davies, 

 , a Welsh botanist. [A. A. B.] 



! DAVYA. A genus of small opposite- 

 leaved trees or scandent bushes of the 



i Melastomacem, found in various parts of 

 tropical America, and numbering about a 

 dozen species. They are chiefly character- 

 ised by the- capsular (not berried) fruit, 



i and the peculiar structure of their sta- 



