384 SALAD PLANTS. 



Use. Though entirely inoffensive, no part of the plant is 

 used for food. The pods resemble some species of snails in 

 a remarkable degree, and are placed on dishes of salad 

 for the purpose of exciting curiosity, or for pleasantly 

 surprising the guests at table. 



SWEET CICELY. 

 Sweet-scented Chervil. Osmorrhiza odorata. Scandix odorata. 



A hardy perennial. When fully grown, the stalk is three 

 feet or more in height ; the leaves are large, and many times 

 divided ; the stems and nerves downy ; the flowers are white, 

 fragrant, and terminate the stalks in flat, spreading bunches, 

 or umbels ; the seeds are large, brown, and retain their 

 vitality but one year. 



Sowing and Culture. It is usually grown from seeds, 

 and is of easy cultivation, as it thrives in almost any soil or 

 situation. When allowed to scatter its seeds after ripening 

 in the autumn, the plants will spring up spontaneously in 

 great numbers in the following April or May, and may then 

 be transplanted where they are to remain ; or the seed may 

 be sown in October, in beds, making the rows fifteen or 

 eighteen inches apart, and thinning the plants to a foot apart 

 in the rows. When practicable, the seed should be sown in 

 the autumn, as it seldom vegetates well, unless subjected to 

 the action of the winter. After the plants have become 

 established, they will require only ordinary treatment, and 

 yield abundantly. 



Use. " In England the leaves were formerly put into 

 salads ; but the strong flavor of anise-seed, which the whole 

 plant possesses, renders them disagreeable to most persons. 

 It is now not cultivated in Britain, but the leaves and roots 

 are still used in France ; the former for the same purposes as 



