144 HISTORICAL NOTES ON 



vegetables. Hence the Carrot (Daucus Carota), the Parsnip 

 (Pastiuaca sativa), and the Celery (Apiura graveolens), in uni- 

 versal use among European races, and the Finocchio (Anethum 

 foeniculum), more especially appreciated in tlie Italian peninsula. 

 All of these are indigenous to Southern Europe, and are now 

 found in a wild state in most countries colonised by European 

 races. 



Professor Targioni's researches convince him that the Carrot 

 and Parsnip were both known to, and cultivated by, the ancient 

 Greeks and Piomans ; but that, until the middle ages, as far as 

 can be traced from the vague descriptions of early writers, the 

 parsnip was very much more general than the carrot, although 

 since then the proportions have been everywhere reversed. The 

 carrot, indeed, appears much more susceptible of improvement 

 under the enlightened cultivation of modern days, and the 

 readers of our " Horticultural Transactions " will recollect, in the 

 second volume of the second series, a paper of Vilmorin-Audrieux's, 

 in which he gives an account of the manner in which he succeeded, 

 in the course of a very few years, in converting the thin, wiry, 

 useless white roots of the wild carrot into a crop of fine, well- 

 shaped, rich-coloured roots, equal to our best garden varieties ; 

 whilst in the case of the parsnip he has, we believe, never yet 

 succeeded in effecting any perceptible change. 



Celery was known to the ancients, but was considered rather 

 as a funereal or ill-omened plant than as an article of food. By 

 early modern writers it is mentioned only as a medicinal plant. 

 Even as late as the 16th century it is spoken of as such by 

 Alamanui, who praises at the same time ihe Maceroni (Smyrnium 

 Olusatrum) for its sweet I'oots as an article of food. It is certain, 

 however, that celery was already begun to be grown for the table 

 in Tuscany at about the same time, and has now entirely super- 

 seded the Maceroni which was once much cultivated in Italian 

 gardens in a similar way. 



The Finocchio, so highly prized by the Italians, especially in 

 the southern portion of the peninsula, is comparatively a modern 

 vegetable. It has however produced several marked races or 

 permanent varieties, amongst which the principal are the 

 finocchio forte, but little removed from the common wild fennel, 

 the finocchio dolce or sweet fennel, and the finocchio di Bologna 

 or finocchione, with the lower part of the stem (or head) much 

 enlarged and succulent. These three varieties are considered by 

 modern Italian botanists as so many distinct species, the two last 



