t 1174 ]
DAUCUS Carota.
Wild Carrot.
lo 6
P ENT AND RIA Digy nid,
G en. Char. Invol. pinnatifid. Corolla fomewhat
radiant. Fruit rough.
Spec. Char. Fruit briftly. Footftalks ribbed on the
under fide. Segments of the leaves acute.
S y n . Daucus Carota. Linn. Sp. PI. 348. Sm. Fl.
B rit. 300. W ith. 289. Hull. 59. Relh. 109.
Sibth. 93. Abbot. $9. Woodv. Med. Rot. t. 161.
Mart. Ruß. t. 82.
D. vulgaris. Raii Syn. 218.
Caucalis Carota. Hudf. 114.
CoMMON in paftures, and efpecially about the borders of
fields, flowering in June and July.
Root biennial, tapering, yellow, remarkable for a peculiar
fweetith aromatic flavour, of which the whole herb partakes.
Stem upright, folitary, branched and fpreading, round, furrowed,
more or lefs briftly. Leaves twice or thrice pinnate;
their fegments fharply cut, narrow and hairy; their common
footftalks ribbed beneath. The umbels grow on long naked
ftalks, and confift of a great number of roughifh rays, the
outermoft of which fpread very much, and are a great deal
longer than the inner ones, fo that the upper furface of the
whole umbel, when in bloflom, is flat, but afterwards by
contraction of the rays it becomes concave like a bird’ s neft.
The general involucra are deeply pinnatifid and linear; the
partial ones either Ample or three-cleft. Flowers radiant,
cream-coloured, but the central abortive floret is remarkable
for its, more or lefs deep, blood-red hue. The angles of the
feeds are fringed with fmall divaricated bridles.
This is the origin of the Garden Carrot. We are now al-
moft perfuaded that the Daucus maritimus, the fegments of
whofe leaves are broad, obtufe and flefhy, may be a diftinft
fpecies.