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 rosted conny and so serve them. The Treasurie 

 of Hidden Secrets and Commodious Conceits, by John Part- 

 ridge, 1586. 



