550 MEALS MEDICINAL. 
drink from the pewter, cool, and winking roguishly, yea, shining 
for very joy at compassing this so fragrant beverage! Fetched 
from neighbouring hostel by attendant nymph, for customary 
dole, and drunk amid the heat and glare of East End boulevard, 
tis Jove himself would raise the tankard high, and Joud vociferate 
“To, Bacche!’ Lift up thy voice then, and praise the East, and 
be well convinced that you have spent there a spell of a thousand- 
and-one-nights! The grateful remembrance will linger with you 
often in the blind regions of the West; the Orient will send 
memory’s swift mercury-heeled messengers to the Occident! 
You will ’ear the East a callin’, and you won’t never heed nought 
else but this.” 
Salsify, a cultivated garden root of the Chicory tribe, is known 
as the Oyster plant, because its taste, when cooked, resembles 
that of the Oyster. 
PARSLEY, (See Herss). 
PARSNIP. 
THE cultivated Parsnip has been produced as a vegetable for 
eating since early Roman times. The roots, which are the 
edible part, afford starch abundantly, containing also as chemical 
constituents albumin, sugar, pectose, dextrin, fat, cellulose, 
mineral matters, and water, but less sugar than carrots, or 
turnips. The volatile oil with which this root is furnishe 
“causes it sometimes to disagree, and gives a flavour of character- 
istic peculiarity thereto. Parsnips are highly nutritive, and 
make a capital supplement to salt fish in Lent. In Gerarde’s 
day Parsnips were known as Mypes. They require careful 
cooking, without excess of water, else the sugar is mainly boiled 
out. “Soft words,” says an old adage, “ butter no Parsnips.” 
The roots may be stewed with advantage so as to retain their 
principal qualities. “Take nice Tender Parsnips, and cut them 
in rings; put them into a stewing-pot in layers, sprinkling over 
them some sugar (perhaps a little flour), and adding butter 
(a small piece between each layer); pour three-quarters of a 
pint of water over, and let it simmer for two hours, giving the 
pot an occasional toss.” For Parsnip fritters: ‘‘ Wash, and 
scrape the Parsnips, and cut them in slices; cover them with 
boiling water. and cook them until tender; then mash them 
