394 PHYSIOLOGY AT THE FAKM. 



roots of the Hamburg parsley are to be taken up in the 

 beginning of November, and stored in sand. 



Parsley, by distillation, affords a small portion of essential oil. 



Both herb and root give an agreeable flavour to soups and 

 stews. The roots, after July, may be boiled and eaten like 

 young carrots, and are found by some very palatable. The 

 chemical composition of parsley has not hitherto attracted 

 much attention. It is recommended to be sown in sheep 

 pastures as a means of preventing red water and rot. 



Parsley is so great a favourite with hares and rabbits that 

 they come long distances in quest of it, and if the ground is 

 not guarded where these animals abound the crop will soon be 

 destroyed. 



Sium sisarum, skirret. Skirret is a native of China, now 

 seldom seen in our gardens. Its tubers are used like parsnips. 

 When boiled and eaten with butter, or boiled and then fried 

 with butter, they are sweet and agreeable. It is a perennial, 

 and may be propagated by separating the roots in spring, but 

 it succeeds best by annual sowiogs, which may be made in 

 April. The skirret was formerly in greater request than at 

 present. It was cultivated in Gerarde's time. The roots 

 were eaten boiled and stewed with pepper and salt, or rolled 

 in flour and fried, or else cold after being boiled along with 

 oil and vinegar. 



Smyrnium olusatrum, alexanders. This plant was for- 

 merly eaten in this country and other parts of Europe, both as 

 a salad and as a pot-herb. Alexanders is corrupted from 

 Olusatrum, and Olusatrum is Olus nigrum, the black pot-herb, 

 owing to the dark colour of its foliage. It is indigenous. 



Araliacece or Hederacece, Ivy order. Casimiroa edulis, 

 Zapote bianco, an edible Mexican fruit. 



Dimorphanthus edulis affords the Chinese edible young 

 shoots of much delicacy. 



