8 ORIGIN AND HISTOEY OF OUR GARDEN VEGETABLES. 



blossom. He saved seed from these in 1834 (all having been annuals) 

 and sowed them in 1835. A large proportion now yielded thick roots. 

 He continued the process of selecting from the best roots and latest in 

 flowering, till at least nine-tenths were satisfactory carrots. They 

 varied in colour from yellow, lilac, to red. He thus converted a wild 

 annual into a biennial, the advantage being that the foliage had a much 

 longer time for developing starch and sugar, while the root responded 

 in growing so as to store it up.* 



M. Languet de Sivry, in 1846, observed that seeds of short-rooted 

 carrots, when sown in a particular soil, in the alluvial deposits formed 

 by a small river in France, yielded immediately, during the first genera- 

 tion, a number of long-rooted plants, either white or yellow, whose 

 roots were very much larger than those of the parent plants. The 

 seeds of the best were selected and sown in the same soil. The result 

 was that in the second generation hardly any roots were found of the 

 short type.f The quality of the different soils is not mentioned, but the 

 one in which the long-rooted forms appeared, being alluvial, shows 

 that it was a light soil. We shall see that similar results occurred 

 with rape and turnip, as well as with the radish. 



With regard to the nutriment in carrots, they contain 89 per cent, 

 of water, 0*5 of albuminoids, 4'5 of sugar, and 1/0 per cent, of mineral 

 matter, the nutrient ratio being 1 : 14, and the nutrient value 7*5. 



CHERVIL. 



Though chiefly used for its foliage, the root of chervil is also eaten, 

 boiled. It was known to the ancients as Scandix as a wild plant and 

 Anthriscum seems to have been the cultivated form, according to Pliny, 

 who only alludes to them for their medicinal virtues. He adds that it 

 was " this plant that furnished Aristophanes with his joke against the 

 poet Euripides, that his mother [said to have been a greengrocer] used 

 to sell, not real vegetables, but only scandixl " 



At the present day the botanical name is Chaerophyllum sativum, 

 Bank., or Anthriscus Cerefolium, though Linnaeus named it Scandix 

 Cere folium. It appears to be indigenous in the south-east of Eussia 

 and west temperate Asia. 



Besides the preceding, the Parsnip Chervil, A. bulbosus, is also 

 cultivated for its roots as a vegetable. Chervil was cultivated by 

 Gerard in Holborn in 1590. The leaves impart an aromatic flavour 

 to soups and stews. They are also eaten like mustard and cress on 

 the Continent. The parsnip chervil is a native of France, and was 

 introduced into England in 1726. The root is white within, and 

 the flavour is said to be between those of the chestnut and potato. 



* Notice sur I' Amelioration de la Garotte Sauvage in Notices sur I' Ameliora- 

 tion de Plantes par la Culture, Paris, 1886. See also Trans. Hort. Soc., 1840, 

 2nd Series, vol. ii., p. 348. 



t Of. Societe Royale et Centrale a" 'Agriculture, 2nd Series, vol. ii., 1846-7, 

 p. 539. The above is quoted from H. de Varigny's Experimental Evolution, 

 p. 203. 



