of British
ships, which always carried more pieces than they were described as
carrying. The same remark applies to French and American ships when the
use of the carronade extended from the British to other navies.

CARROT. Wild carrot, _Daucus carota_, a member of the natural order
Umbelliferae, grows wild in fields and on roadsides and sea-shores in
Britain and the north temperate zone generally of the Old World. It is
an annual and resembles the cultivated carrot, except in the root, which
is thin and woody. It is the origin of the cultivated carrot, which can
be developed from it in a few generations. M. Vilmorin succeeded in
producing forms with thick fleshy roots and the biennial habit in four
generations. In the cultivated carrot, during the first season of
growth, the stem remains short and bears a rosette of graceful,
long-stalked, branched leaves with deeply cut divisions and small,
narrow ultimate segments. During this period the plant devotes its
energies to storing food, chiefly sugar, in the so-called root, which
consists of the upper part of the true root and the short portion of the
stem between the root and the lowest leaves. A transverse section of the
root shows a central core, generally yellow in colour, and an outer red
or scarlet rind. The core represents the wood of an ordinary stem and
the outer ring the soft outer tissue (bast and cortex). In the second
season the terminal bud in the centre of the leaf-rosette grows at the
expense of the stored nourishment and lengthens to form a furrowed,
rather rough, branched stem, 2 or 3 ft. high, and bearing the flowers in
a compound umbel. The umbel is characterized by the fact that the small
leaves (bracts) which surround it, resemble the foliage leaves on a much
reduced scale, and ultimately curve inwards, the whole inflorescence
forming a nest-like structure. The flowers are small, the outer white,
the central ones often pink or purplish. The fruit consists of two
one-seeded portions, each portion bearing four rows of stiff spinous
projections, which cause the fruits when dropped to cling together, and
in a natural condition help to spread the seed by clinging to the fur of
animals. On account of these projections the seeds cannot be sown evenly
without previous rubbing with sand or dry ashes to separate them. As
usual in the members of the order Umbelliferae, the wall of the fruit is
penetrated lengthwise by canals containing a characteristic oil.