" So that besides the noxious plants
there is a long range of useful vegetables, as parsnips, parsley,
carrots, fennel, dill, anise, caraway, cummin, coriander, and celery.
The last, in its wild state, is said to be pernicious, but etiolation
changes the products and renders them harmless. The flowers of all are
too minute to be individually pretty, but every one knows how charming
are the umbels of our wild carrot, resembling as they do the choicest
old lace. Frequently the carrot has one central maroon colored floret.
Though most of the plants are herbs, Dr. Welwitsch found in Africa a
tree-like one, with a stem one to two feet thick, much prized by the
natives for its medicinal properties, and also valuable for its
timber. In Kamschatka also they assume a sub-arboreous type, as well
as on the steppes of Afghanistan.
As mistakes often occur by confounding the roots of Umbelliferae with
those of horse radish or other esculents, it is well, when in doubt,
to send the plants, _always in fruit_, if possible, for
identification. None of them are poisonous to the touch--at least to
ordinary people. Cases of rather doubtful authenticity are reported
from time to time of injury from the handling of wild carrot.
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