RADIX ARMORACL^. 71 



RADIX ARMORACIyE. 



Horse-radish; F. Raifort (i.e. racine forte), Gran de Bret ague ; 



G, Meerrettig. 



Botanical Origin — Gocldearia ArmioraciaJj.yh conwaon perennial 

 with a stout tapering root, large coarse oblong leaves with long stalks, 

 and erect flowering racemes 2 to 8 feet high. It is indigenous to the 

 eastern parts of Europe, from the Caspian through Russia and Poland 

 to Finland. In Britain and in other parts of Europe from Sicily to the 

 polar circle, it occurs cultivated or semi- wild; in the oi^inion of Schti- 



belei 



Nor 



History — The vernacula 



Hinv^ to be 



ornate the Arvfioracia 



tne WildKadish (/5a^,..., ^,^.^, 



De positively identified with that under notice. 



A' 



Horse-radish is called in the Russian language Chren, in Lithuanian 



K 



dialects, and as Cran or Cvanson into French. 



From these and similar facts, De Candolle^ has drawn the coti- 

 clusion that the propagation of the plant has travelled from Eastern to 

 >> esteru Europe. 



Both the root and leaves of horse-radish were used as a medicine 

 and also eaten with food in Germany and Denmark during the middle 

 ^-ges. But the use of the former was not common in England until a 

 '^uch later period. The plant is mentioned in the Meddygon Myddfai 

 and was known in England as Red-cole in the time of Turner, 1568, 

 but IS not quoted hy him** as used in food, nor is it noticed by Boorde,' 

 ^^42, in his chapter on edible roots. Gerarde^ at the end of the 16th 

 century remarks that horse-radish — "is commonly used among the 

 Germans for sauce to eat fish with, and such like meats, as we do 

 bustard." Half a century later the taste for horse-radish had begun to 

 prevail in England. Coles « (1657) states that the root sliced thin and 



nixed with vinegar is eaten as a sauce with meat as among the 

 , ermans. That the use of horse-radish in France had the same origin 



s proved by its old French name Moidarde des Allemands. 



1 he root to which certain medicinal properties had always been 

 ^^signed, was included in the materia raedica of the London Pharma- 

 poeias of the last century under the name of Raphanus rusticanus. 



of o^^^^"P^^o^— The root which in good ground often attains a length 

 in/1 * ^"^^ nearly an inch in diameter, is enlarged in its upper part 



iches each sur- 



scars of fallen 



^0 a crown, usually dividing into a few short bra 



folia" kV ^ ^""^^ ^^ \qb.yq&, and annulated by the 



ge ; below the crown it tapers slightly, and then for some distance is 



2 ^"^n^dt Norwecfens (1873) 29G. ' Herhall, part 2. (156S) 111, 



i^ib. ^,v „ o- ,. I ^ 6 i)i/,.to/|/ o/ i/eZ«/i, Early EiigUsli Text 



-»j;evf.» rr , -a -, ... \x^oc-; kj^u. Socicty, 1870. 278. 



(1856» 5^1' ^,^'^^^''hte der Botanilc, iii. ' Herball, edited by Johnsori, 163<J, 240. 



^^chdZx- ^^^ Schubeler I.e. ; Pfeiffer, ^ Adam in Eden, or 3lature's Paradise,- 



"' ■ "^^'"""^n Konrad von Meaetiherq, Lond. 1657. chap. 256. 



41S. 



' Oeoafr^\ ?• E*' (I^iti^-^-'s translation). 



^fc^'^:^ ^°^."'"'^«^. ii- (1855) 655. 



