PAESLEY FAMILY. 



147 



ralized, and threatens to tecome a troublesome pest, on our farms. 

 When it gets on the premises of a careless slovenly farmer, it soon mul- 

 tiplies so as to become a source of annoyance to the whole neighborhood. 

 It should be diligently eradicated before it matures its seeds. 



2. PASTIXA'CA, Tournef. Paesxip. 



[Latin, Padus, food ; from the use made of the root.] 



Calyx-teeth obsolete. Fruit oval, flatly compressed, with a dilated flat 

 margin. Carpels ribbed as in Heracleum. Od-tuhes one in each channel 

 between the ribs, and two on the inner face of the carpel, as long as the 

 carpels. Involucre and involucels 0, or few-leaved. Stem sulcate, smooth. 

 Leaves pinnately dissected ; the leaflets incised-dentate or lobed. 

 1. P. SATi'vA, L. Leaflets in 3 - 4 pairs with a terminal odd one, ovate- 

 oblong, rather obtuse, incised-dentate, sessile ; the terminal one 3-lobed 

 and petiolulate. 



Cultivated Pastixaca. Parsnip. Garden Parsnip. 



Fr. Panais potager. Germ. Die Pastinake. Span. Chirivia. 



Plant yellowish-green. Root biennial, fusiform, large and fleshy. Stem 3-5 feet high, 

 rather stout, furrowed and fistular, somewhat branching. Leaflets 2-4 inches long — the 

 primary leaves of the young plant orbicular-cordate and incisely crenate. Umbels nearly 

 level on the top. Petals yellow, small, with the apex incurved or rolled in. Fruit thin 

 or very flatly compressed on the back. Ribs filiform ; channels greenish-yellow ; oil-tubes 

 dark purple, generally hnear. sometimes a little clavate. 



Gardens : cultivated. Native of Europe. i^'Z. June -August. jFr. August -October. 



Ohs. Generally cultivated for its fine esculent root, which, in the best 

 varieties (such as that called the " Guernsey Parsnip'), is remarkably 

 rich and marrow-like. The plant produces many seeds, and is apt to 



Fig. 96. An umbel of the Carrot [Caucus Carota]. 97. An enlarged fruit, 

 same divided , showing an oil-tube under each of the prickly secondary ribs. 



The 



