UMBELLIFEROUS TRIBE 57 



plant has an unpleasant odour, and its much darker green colour, and its 

 more finely -divided leaves, distinguish it at all times from true parsley ; and 

 during July and August, when its umbels of white flowers are to be seen, it 

 is well characterized by the involucres of the partial umbels, consisting of 

 three long "leaves, which hang drooping all on one side. 



18. Fennel (Fceiuculum). 



Common Fennel {F. vidgdre). — Leaves twice ternate ; leaflets pin- 

 natifid; segments thread-shaped, or awl-shaped. Plant perennial. Most 

 persons accustomed to roam by the sea-side, especially if they often wander 

 among cliffs, know the dark yet bright green Fennel, which so often over- 

 shadows the thrift and sea lavender, or the sandworts of the sandy soil at 

 the base of the cliffs. The plant grows also sometimes in places a little way 

 inland, near houses and villages, and is found in profusion in many salt 

 marshes, both of the sea and river. Plentiful as it is, and wholly Avild as it 

 would seem to be, many botanists consider that it is not truly indigenous ; 

 Sir Joseph Hooker is of opinion that it may be native so far as the district 

 l)etween North Wales and Norfolk to Cornwall and Kent is concerned, " but 

 not north of it, nor in Ireland." When we remember how much the plant 

 was prized in former days, and how often still we see the Fennel growing in 

 the cottage or kitchen garden, it is likely that it is rather naturalized than 

 native. As an old herbalist said, "Every garden affordeth this so plentifully, 

 that it needs no description :" he also rejoices that " one good old fashion is 

 not yet left off, viz., to boil Fennel with fish," a custom still preserved in the 

 eastern part of England, where it is served up with boiled mackerel. Some 

 very slight differences exist between the Avild and garden plant ; the latter 

 is called Foeniculum dulce, but it is scarcely distinct, and probably is but a 

 variety. 



Parkinson, who wrote his celebrated "Garden of Flowers" in 1629, 

 added to it a treatise on "divers physicall herbes, fit to be planted in gardens 

 to serve for the especial use of a familie." He says of the Fennel : "It 

 is sowne of seede, and abideth many yeeres, yielding seede ; the roots 

 also are used in broths, and the leaA-es more seldome, yet they serve to 

 trimme up many fish meates." He adds elsewhere, that "Fennel is useful to 

 strowe upon fish, as also to boyle and put among fish of divers sortes." He 

 tells us, too, that " Cowcumbers and other fruits are pickled " with it ; and 

 that the " seedes are much used to be put in Pippin pies, and divers other 

 such baked fruits, as also unto bread, to give it a better relish." Of its 

 general use as a fish-sauce we have plenty of record in old books. Thus, in 

 "Piers Ploughman," one speaks of "a ferthing's Avorth of fynkel-sede for 

 fastynge dales." Even yet some remains of its old use are seen in many 

 parts of Kent, Avhere, when mackerel is purchased, the fishmonger sends 

 home with it a branch of Fennel, to be used as sauce. To few modern 

 palates, however, is the Fennel agreeable. A sweet flavour in food seems 

 to have been liked by our ancestors, and this plant has a strong and to us 

 unpleasant sweetness. 



Fennel, however, was evidently much liked, and its odour was considered 



II.— 8 



