FENNEL. 271 
and some starch, with a bitter resinous extract. Gerarde has 
taught that “the green leaves of the Fennel eaten doe fill 
women’s brestes with milk.” The camphoraceous vapour of 
its essential oil will cause the tears, and the saliva to flow. A 
syrup prepared from the expressed juice of the herb, was formerly 
given for chronic coughs. The plant was eaten in olden times 
as a savoury herb. Its leaves are served nowadays with salmon 
to correct the oily indigestibility thereof. Roman bakers put the 
herb under their loaves in the oven for giving the bread an agree- 
able flavour. A physician to the first Emperor of Germany saw a 
monk cured by his tutor in nine days of a cataract, simply by 
applying frequently to the eyes a strong decoction of the whole 
Fennel plant (bruised whilst fresh), in boiling water, and then 
allowed to become cool. It was formerly the practice to boil 
Fennel with all fish; and French epicures keep their fresh fish 
in Fennel-leaves so as to make the flesh firm. The whole herb 
is thought to confer longevity, strength, and courage; though 
an old proverb has said, ominously enough, “ To sow Fennel 
is to sow sorrow.” Keats, 1817, who was first a student of 
medicine, and then a poet, has sung: “Fill your baskets 
high, with Fennel green, and balm, and golden pines.” John 
Evelyn has taught that the peeled stalks, soft, and white, 
of the cultivated Garden Fennel, when dressed “like salery,” 
exercise a pleasant action conducive to sleep. The Italians 
eat these blanched stalks, which they call “* Cartucci,” as a salad. 
Fennel seeds, when macerated in spirit of wine (together with 
the seeds of Juniper, and Caraway), make a cordial which is noted 
for promoting a copious flow of urine in dropsy. If the herb 
is dried, and powdered, a valuable eye-wash can be prepared 
therefrom, half a teaspoonful being infused in a wineglassful of 
cold water, and presently strained off clear. A similar application 
will speedily relieve earache, and toothache, being then first 
made hot, if desired. 
Wm. Coles, in his Nature’s Paradise (1650), taught that “ both 
the seeds, leaves, and roots of our Garden Fennel are much used 
in drinks, and broths, for those that are grown fat, to abate their 
unwieldinesse, and cause them to grow more gaunt, and lank.” 
The ancient Greek name, Marathron, of the herb, as derived 
from the verb maraino, to grow thin, seems to have conveyed 
a similar meaning. Hot Fennel tea, made by pouring boiling 
water on the bruised seeds, and flowers, is an efficient promoter 
