BRITISH PLANTS. 
5G5 
the roots with another of the same size, so as 
to blanch the stalks thoroughly. Sixty pots, 
each ten inches over, and from five to eight 
roots in each according to size, will supply a 
moderate sized family, if forced in succession. 
I f seed is not w anted, the flower-stem should 
be taken out of every plant as soon as it be- 
gins to rise in the spring, so that it may not 
exhaust the root. The flower-heads if gathered 
just before they burst the bract which shields 
tliem, are said to afford a very delicate vege- 
table, if cooked as brocoli, and it has been 
lately recommended under the name of Rha- 
flower. 
BRITISH PLANTS. 
THE GENUS CARU5I. 
Character. — Fruit compressed, oblong ; 
carpels with five filiform ridges, and single 
vittas* in the interstices; stylopodium,\ de- 
pressed ; cali,x obsolete ; petals obcordate, 
with a, narrow, acute, inflexed point. There 
are two British species. 
r -\ -"XiiV-B i;.iV*i 
Carum Cartti, 
C. Carui, Linnreus. — Caraway. Root fusi- 
form ; stem branched ; leaves bipinnate ; 
general involucre either absent or consisting 
of one leaf ; partial involucre always wanting. 
A biennial plant, growing from one to two 
* Clavate vessels of oil, found in the coat of the fruit 
of umbelliferous plants. 
t This word is not much used ; it indicates a small 
body attached to the summit of the ovary in this class 
of plants. 
feet high, with a tapering root, and erect, angu- 
lar, branched stem ; the lower leaves are nearly 
a span long, and twice pinnate; the foot-stalk 
much dilated at the base, and the leaflets cut 
into linear segments ; the stem-leaves are 
smaller ; the umbels of flowers are numerous, 
both terminal and lateral, and are produced in 
June ; the general umbels are often without 
involucres, the partial ones always so ; the 
flowers are white, of five obovate, notched 
petals, with a small inflexed point; the fruit 
is aromatic. Naturalized in some parts of 
Great Britain, where it is found in meadows 
and pastures. The seeds of this plant are 
the caraway seeds of the shops ; they have an 
aromatic smell, and a warm pungent taste. 
They are reckoned among the four greater 
hot seeds, as they were formerly termed, and 
are frequently employed as a stomachic and 
carminative ; they are also, as is well known, 
employed in culinary arrangements. 
C. verticillatum, Koch. — Whorled Cara- 
way. Root fascicled ; stem slender ; leaves 
pinnate, with leaflets divided to the base into 
capillary spreading segments ; general and par- 
tial involucres of many leaves, small. A herba- 
ceous perennial, growing from one to two 
feet high, with slender, smooth, slightly 
branched stems, and bearing the leaves mostly 
at the base, on long footstalks, sheathing at the 
base; the segments of the leaflets spread so as 
to appear whorled, and quite surround the 
stalk. The umbels of flowers are terminal, 
produced in July and August ; the flowers are 
small and white. Found rarely in England, 
in Wales, and in Ireland, and very abundantly 
in the west of Scotland, in moist hilly pas- 
turages, especially near the sea. It is the 
Si.son verticillatum of Linnaeus, and Slum 
verticillatum of Lamarck. 
These plants are of very easy cultivation, 
the latter requiring only the ordinary manage- 
ment of herbaceous plants ; the former that of 
biennial culinary crops. 
TOE GENUS PYRETIIRUM. 
Character. — Fruit angular, crowned with 
a membranaceous border; receptacle naked ; 
involucre hemispherical, or nearly flat; scales 
imbricated, membranaceous at their margins. 
Three species are natives of Britain. 
P. Parthcnium, Smith. — Common Fever- 
few. Leaves stalked, hipinnate ; segments 
ovate, or oblong, pinnatifid ; lobes cut ; heads 
corymbose} Involucral scales linear obtuse; 
fruit crowned with a short jagged membrane. 
A herbaceous perennial, growing two feet 
high, with erect branched stems, terminated by 
small corymbose heads of flowers; the leaves 
are flat and hoary looking ; the uppermost 
leaflets confluent; the flower-heads are small, 
produced in July, with a very short white ray 
