90 A GARDEN OF HERBS 



curious botanic history that no one can tell what is its 

 native country. " Probably the plant has been so altered 

 by cultivation as to have lost all likeness to its original 

 self." It is said that Charlemagne having once tasted a 

 cheese flavoured with parsley seeds, ordered two cases of 

 these cheeses to be sent to him yearly. 



Dethicke gives the amateur gardener this advice : "To 

 make the seedes appear more quickly steep them in vinegar 

 and strew the bed with the ashes of bean-water with the 

 best aqua vitce, and then cover the beds with a piece of 

 woolen cloth, and the plants will begin to appear in an 

 hour." Then he adds : " he must take off the cloth so 

 that they may shoot up the higher to the wonder of all 

 beholders!" 



In the southern states of America the negroes consider it 

 unlucky to transplant parsley from the old home to the 

 new, and in England old-fashioned gardeners will often tell 

 you they never transplant parsley, as it would bring mis- 

 fortune on every one in the house. It is said that parsley 

 seed goes seven times to the Devil and back before it ger- 

 minates, and that is why it is so slow in coming up ! 



Formerly parsley roots were much eaten, and the young 

 roots are still recommended by modern herbalists. 



A SAUCE FOR A ROSTED RABBIT USED TO KING HENRY 

 THE EIGHT. Take a handfull of washed Percely, mince it 

 small, boyle it with butter and verjuice upon a chafing-dish, 

 season it with suger and a little pepper grosse beaten; 

 when it is ready put in a fewe crummes of white bread 

 amongst the other : let it boyle againe till it be thicke, then 

 laye it in a platter, like the breadth of three fingers, laye of 

 each side one rested conny and so serve them. The Treasurie 

 of Hidden Secrets and Commodious Conceits, by John Part- 

 ridge, 1586. 



