UMBELLIFEROUS TRIBE 59 



by placing earth around them, and they then form a very pleasant vegetable. 

 This kind is much cultivated in Italy. 



Mr. F. A. Paley informs the author that he considers that the plant 

 which the Greeks and Romans used as crowns was certainly celery {Apium), 

 the translation Fennel being quite arbitrary. Longfellow, in his little poem 

 called "The Goblet of liife," apparently alludes to our Fennel as the plant 

 in question : — 



" Above the lowly plants it towers, 

 The Fennel with its yellow flowers ; 

 And in an earlier age than ours 

 Was gifted with the wondrous powers 

 Lost vision to restore. 



" It gave new strength and fearless mood, 

 And gladiators fierce and rude 

 Mingled it in their daily food ; 

 And he who battled and subdued, 

 The wreath of Fennel bore." 



19. Meadow Saxifrage {Sc'scH). 



Mountain Meadow Saxifrage (S. libandtis). — Stem furrowed ; leaves 

 doubly pinnate, cut ; segments lanceolate, very acute, the lowermost leaflets 

 crossing ; general involucre of many leaves ; fruit hairy ; root spindle- 

 shaped, and perennial. This is a very rare plant of chalky pastures, with a 

 stem of from one to three feet in height. It has been found on the Gogma- 

 gog Hills in Cambridgeshire, and on the chalk hills of Herts and Sussex. It 

 is by some writers termed Libandtis montdna. It bears terminal umbels of 

 small white flowers in July and August. 



20. LovAGE (Ligusticwn). 



Scottish Lovage (L. scoticum). — Leaves twice ternate ; leaflets egg- 

 shaped, somewhat rhomboidal, toothed, and serrated ; involucre of 5 — 7 

 linear lanceolate leaves ; calyx five-toothed. Plant perennial. The Lovage 

 is frequent, though local, on the rocky sea-coasts of Scotland and Northumber- 

 land. Its leaves grow mostly from the root, and are dull green, opaque, 

 and somewhat succulent, with very large lobed and cut leaflets. The umbels 

 of white flowers appear in July. When bruised the plant emits a strong 

 odour of parsley. The herb is eaten freshly gathered, or prepared as a salad, 

 and the natives of the Shetland Islands, who eat it thus, as well as boiled, 

 call it Siiinas. It has an aromatic flavour, but it is somewhat nauseous to 

 palates unused to it, though a Highland gentleman assured the writer, that 

 having from childhood been accustomed to eat it, he regarded it as a great 

 delicacy. Dr. Walker, who remarks that Ray, in his " Synopsis," mentions 

 Highlanders who used to eat it before anything in the morning to preserve 

 them from infection through the day, adds, "and indeed its strong and 

 grateful aromatic taste would plead that in this practice they judged not 

 amiss." The spindle-shaped root is carminative, and the people on the shores 

 where it is plentiful have from time immemorial prized it for its medicinal 

 qualities. Its flavour is very hot and disagreeable, but as in former days it 

 was reputed to be a cure for ague, it was much planted in English gardens, 

 where, as an old writer says, "it groweth huge and great." In its wild state 



8—2 



