423.  Carrot.  Daucus Carota.—­

The Orange Carrot.—­For winter use.

The Early Horn ditto.—­For summer use.—­The former is usually sown in March; the latter being smaller, and more early, is commonly raised on hot-beds.  The Early Horn Carrot may likewise be sown in August, and is good all winter.

424.  Celery.  Apium graveolens.—­Celery is now so generally known as to render a description of the plant useless; nor need it be told, that the stalks blanched are eaten raw, stewed, &c.  It should be used with great caution, if grown in wet land, as it has been considered poisonous in such cases.  The season of sowing celery is in April.  We have a variety of this, which is red, and much esteemed.

425.  Celeriac.  This is a variety of the Apium graveolens.  It is hollow in the stem, and the roots are particularly large:  although this is much used in Germany, it is not so much esteemed by us as the celery.

426.  Champignon.  Agaricus pratensis.—­This plant is equal in flavour to the mushroom when boiled or stewed:  it is rather dry, and has little or no scent whatever.

427.  CHARDOONS.  Cynara Cardunculus.—­The gardeners blanch the stalks as they do celery; and they are eaten raw with oil, pepper, and vinegar; or, if fancy directs, they are also either boiled or stewed.

428.  Chervil.  Scandix Cerefolium.—­This plant is so much used by the French and Dutch, that there is scarcely a soup or salad but what chervil makes part of it:  it is grateful to the taste.  See article oenanthe crocata in the Poisonous Plants.

429.  CIVES.  Allium Schoenoprasum.—­This is an excellent herb for salads in the spring:  it is also useful for soups, &c. &c.  It is perennial, and propagated by its roots, which readily part at any season.

430.  Clary.  Salvia Sclarea.—­The seeds are sown in autumn.  It is biennial.  The recent leaves dipped in milk, and then fried in butter, were formerly used as a dainty dish; but now it is mostly used as a pot-herb, and for making an useful beverage called Clary Wine, viz.—­Put four pounds of sugar to five gallons of water, and the albumen of three eggs well beaten; boil these together for about sixteen minutes, then skim the liquor; and when it is cool, add of the leaves and blossoms two gallons, and also of yeast half a pint; and when this is completed, put it all together into a vessel and stir it two or three times a-day till it has done fermenting, and then stop it close for two months:  afterwards draw it into a clean vessel, adding to it a quart of good brandy.  In two months it will be fit to bottle.

431.  Colewort.  Brassica oleracea var.—­This is a small variety of the common cabbage, which is sown in June, and planted out for autumn and winter use.  These are often found to stand the severe frosts of our winter when the large sort of cabbages are killed; but its principal use with gardeners is, to have a crop that will occupy the land after the beans and pease are over, and perhaps Colewort is the most advantageous for such purposes.