66 ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF OUR GARDEN VEGETABLES. 



for seasoning and soups. The British species, 0. vulgare, L., is also 

 aromatic and has likewise been used. 



MINT. 



The garden mint, Mentha viridis, L., is a cultivated form of M. syl- 

 vestris, L., the Horse-mint, which is recorded as cultivated at Aleppo. 

 Either M. sylvestris or some form approaching M. viridis, which is not 

 known as a truly wild plant, was probably the mint of Scripture. It is 

 a favourite plant in association with peas and in pea-soup. 



PENNYROYAL. 



This is Mentha Pulegium, L., a native of England and South 

 Europe. It was formerly in great repute for its supposed medicinal 

 virtues, and is still employed as a domestic remedy. 



PARSLEY. 



Petroselinum sativum, Hoff., is the common Parsley in Bentham's 

 ' Handbook ' and Carum Petroselinum, Benth., in Hooker's Student's 

 Flora.* According to the former it is a native of Eastern Mediter- 

 ranean regions, its old name being Macedonicum. De Candolle gives 

 Turkey, Algeria, and the Lebanon. 



The ancients distinguished between two plants under the name 

 Selinon, one being the celery (Apium graveolens) and called heleio- 

 selinon i.e. "Marsh selinon" and the other, our parsley, Oreo- 

 selinon, "Mountain selinon 1 '; or petroselinon, meaning "Bock 

 selinon." It was the last name from which Parsley is derived, for 

 in the middle ages Petroselinum became corrupted into Petrocilium. 

 This was Anglicized into Petersylige and Petersile. This became 

 Persy lie, Persely, and finally parsley. 



In the sixteenth century the parsley was known as Apium hor- 

 tense, but the herbalists retained, as the official name, Petroselinum. 

 A variety crispum was grown, as it is to-day, being even mentioned 

 by Pliny. Camerarius in 1588 calls it Apium verum, and says it was 

 the plant which the ancients used for crowning the victors in the 

 Nemean games and also for decorating tombs. 



Linnaeus (in 1764) named it Apium Petroselinum, and gives 

 Sardinia as its wild habitat. 



It was not introduced into England before 1548. Several varieties 

 now exist. No mention appears to have been made by the ancients 

 or in the Middle Ages of the variety with an enlarged tap-root, but 

 Miller in his Dictionary calls it "the large-rooted Parsley."! The 

 tap-root grows to a considerable length and is ^ inch in diameter, and 

 under cultivation it has developed both a parsnip-like as well as a 

 turnip-shaped form. Miller says (in 1771) : " This is now pretty com- 

 monly sold in the London markets, the roots being six times as large 



* Hence Bentham has not kept to his own name. 



t His definition is " Foliis radicalibus trifidis, serratis ; petiolis longissimis " ; 

 vrhich agrees with the parsley. 



