_), a name applied
at different times and in different countries to ships of very varying
appearance and build, as in Turkey to a ship of war, and in France to a
small boat used in the herring fishery. In the 15th and 16th centuries,
caravels were much used by the Portuguese and Spanish for long voyages.
They were roundish ships, with a double tower at the stern, and a single
one in the bows, and were galley rigged. Two out of the three vessels in
which Columbus sailed on his voyage of discovery to America were
"caravels." Carvel, the older English form, is now used only in the term
"carvel-built," for a boat in which the planking is flush with the edges
laid side to side, in distinction from "clinker-built," where the edges
overlap.

CARAVELLAS, a small seaport of southern Bahia, Brazil, on the Caravellas
river a few miles above its mouth, which is dangerously obstructed by
sandbars. Pop. (1890) of the municipality 5482, about one-half of whom
lived in the town. Caravellas was once the centre of a flourishing whale
fishery, but has since fallen into decay. It is the port of the Bahia &
Minas railway, whose traffic is comparatively unimportant.

CARAWAY, the fruit, or so-called seed, of _Carum Carui_, an
umbelliferous plant growing throughout the northern and central parts of
Europe and Asia, and naturalized in waste places in England. The plant
has finely-cut leaves and compound umbels of small white flowers. The
fruits are laterally compressed and ovate, the mericarps (the two
portions into which the ripe fruit splits) being subcylindrical,
slightly arched, and marked with five distinct pale ridges. Caraways
evolve a pleasant aromatic odour when bruised, and they have an
agreeable spicy taste. They yield from 3 to 6% of a volatile oil, the
chief constituent of which is cymene aldehyde. Cymene itself is present,
having the formula CH3C6H4CH(CH3)2; also carvone C10H14O, and limonene,
a terpene. The dose of the oil is 1/2-3 minims. The plant is cultivated
in north and central Europe, and Morocco, as well as in the south of
England, the produce of more northerly latitudes being richer in
essential oil than that grown in southern regions. The essential oil is
largely obtained by distillation for use in medicine as an aromatic
stimulant and carminative, and as a flavouring material in cookery and
in liqueurs for drinking. Caraways are, however, more extensively
consumed entire in certain kinds of cheese, cakes