6 ORIGIN AND HlSfORY OF OUR GARDEN VEGETABLES. 



which grows spontaneously; by the Greeks it is known as staphylinos. 

 Another kind is grown either from the root transplanted or else 

 from seed, the ground being dug to a very considerable depth for the 

 purpose. It begins to be fit for eating at the end of the year, but it is 

 still better at the end of two ; even then, however, it preserves its strong 

 pungent flavour, which it is found impossible to get rid of." In 

 speaking of the supposed medical virtues, he adds, "the cultivated 

 has the same as the wild kind, though the latter is more powerful, 

 especially when growing in stony places." 



Turning to Matthiolus' " Commentary on Dioscorides " (16th cen- 



FIG. 2. WELD CARROT (annual). Quarter natural size. 



tury A.D.), under Staphylinos he figures three plants -- Pasiinaca 

 domestica (our parsnip), P. sylvestris (the wdld carrot, Daucus 

 Carota, L.), and Carota (the cultivated carrot). This word is found 

 first in the writings of Athenaeus (200 A.D.), and in a book on Cookery 

 by Apicius Coelius (230 A.D.). 



With regard to the word Elaphoboscum used by both Dioscorides 

 and Pliny, it means " stag's food," for it was supposed to be eaten by 

 them as an antidote to snake-bites. It is difficult to determine what 

 Pliny meant by it, but he compared the foliage to that of Olusatrum, 

 our "Alexanders," which somewhat resembles that of the parsnip; 

 moreover, the supposed medical virtues were more or less like those 



