A N E 



OR, BOTANICAL DICTIONARY. 



A-N. 



to three or four drops, or more, as a carminative, and in 

 hiccoughs. It grows wild among the corn in Spain and 

 Portugal, and also upon the coast of Italy. This plant is 

 propagated by sowing the seeds soon after they are ripe, in 

 autumn, in a light soil, where they are to remain, allowing 

 them eight or ten inches room to grow. When they appear, 

 hoe them in the same manner as onions, leaving them every 

 way eight or ten inches asunder, and clearing them from 

 weeds. When the seeds begin to form, cut up those in- 

 tended to put into the pickle for Cucumbers, leaving those 

 that are for seed till ripe ; when you must rut, and spread 

 them upon a cloth to dry ; and then beat out for use. If 

 the seeds be suffered to fall upon the ground, the plants 

 will appear in the spring without any further care. 



2. Anethum Segetum. Three stem leaves ; fruits oval ; 

 corolla ttosculous, yellow. Annual. Native of Portugal. 



3. Anethum Foenieulum ; Fennel, or Finckle. Of this 

 there are three varieties, viz. FoaniculumVulgare, or Common 

 Fennel; which has a strong fleshy root, penetrating deep 

 into the ground, and continuing many years. Foenieulum 

 Dulce, or Sweet Fennel ; and Fceniculum Azoricum ; 

 A/orian Fennel, or Finochio. Fruits of both the species and 

 varieties ovate. The first, or Common Fennel, flowers in July, 

 and ripens seed in autumn, and though not a native of Eng- 

 land, but of Germany, Spain, Italy, Madeira, and China, has 

 sown itself so plentifully in many places where it has been 

 introduced, that it is now become common upon our chalky 

 cliffs, near Gravesend, and other parts of Kent; in Sussex; 

 near Marazion in Cornwall ; and inland, near Nottingham 

 castle, Spetchly in Worcestershire, and Burwell in Cam- 

 bridgeshire. Sweet Fennel ; the leaves of which are very 

 long and slender ; the stalks shorter than those of the com- 

 mon sort ; and the seeds longer and of a lighter colour. 

 The seeds are imported from Germany and Italy, and are 

 by some preferred to the common sort, being much sweeter. 

 The tender buds of Fennel are eaten in salads, and the 

 boiled leaves as a aauce to fish, and also raw with pickled 

 fish. In Spain, they are cut up with olives and pickled pork. 

 The seeds of Common Fennel are warmer than those of the 

 Sweet Fennel, but less sweet, and not of so grateful a flavour. 

 There is the same difference in the preparations from them : 

 the spirituous tincture of Sweet Fennel is yellowish ; of the 

 common, greenish. The distilled leaves impregnate water witli 

 a grateful flavour, and yield a considerable portion of essential 

 oil. An extract made from them by rectified spirit is by no 

 means a despicable aromatic. The essential oil procured from 

 the seeds expels wind, and increases the urinary evacuation, 

 but is not of a heating nature. The roots taken up early in 

 the spring have a pleasant sweetish taste, with a slight aromatic 

 wamith, and are ranked among aperient roots. Hill recom- 

 mends a decoction of it made with common water, when 

 given in large quantities, as operating by urine, and relieving 

 the gravel and jaundice. Meyriek says, a strong decoction of 

 the root is a good medicine in the jaundice, dropsy, and all 

 other disorders arising from obstructions of the viscera. The 

 seeds reduced to powder, and taken every morning fasting, 

 arc said to preserve the sight from decaying, and to restore 

 it \vhcn impaired. A decoction of them is good in the small 

 pox and measles ; it likewise relieves shortness of breath, and 

 other complaints of the lungs, and promotes urine and the 

 menses. The seeds applied externally in poultices, are found 

 to be useful in dispersing hard swellings in any part of the 

 body. Culpeper remarks, that Fennel is boiled with fish to 

 correct the phlegmatic tendency of that kind of food, though 

 few persons know why they use it, as it is a very ancient 

 custom. He recommends the leaves or seeds to be boiled in 



VOL. i. 9. 



barley-water, and drank, as good to increase the quantity and 

 improve the quality of nurses' milk; also, when boiled in water, 

 for the hiccough, and heat of the stomach and loathing; and 

 boiled in wine, as an antidote for those who have eaten poison<- 

 ous herbs or mushrooms. A pound of Sweet Fennel seed 

 impregnates a gallon of water strongly with their flavour, in 

 distillation. A great quantity of mild, sweetish, and yellowish 

 essential oil, like that of Aniseeds, floats on the surface of the 

 water, and, like it, also congeals by a slight cold into a white 

 mass like butter. These seeds also contain a considerable 

 quantity of expressed oil, which is extracted by digestion in 

 rectified spirit, along with the aromatic matter of the Fennel, 

 but rises to the surfaceupon inspissating the filtered tincture; 

 the concentrated extract retains much of the greatest part of 

 both taste and smell. The best time to sow the seeds of 

 Fennel is soon after they are ripe ; the plants will come up 

 in autumn or the following spring, and, as they will grow in 

 any situation, only require to be thinned when too close, and 

 kept free from weeds. The third variety, or Finochio, though 

 a favourite salad herb of Italy, is not much liked, and there- 

 fore little cultivated in England, where it seldom survives 

 the cold of winter. It has very short stalks, swelling just 

 above the surface of the ground, to four or five inches broad', 

 and two inches thick, which being tender and: fleshy, is eaten, 

 when blanched, with oil, vinegar, and pepper, as a cold s.-i UuJ 

 The seeds are narrow, crooked, and of a bright yellow colour, 

 with a strong smell like Aniseed, and a very sweet taste. 

 They should be sown in light rich earth early in March, 

 and will be fit for use in July. Sow the seeds about two 

 inches apart, in shallow drills eighteen inches asunder, Aa 

 soon as the plants appear, remove the weeds with a hoe, and' 

 thin them occasionally until they are at least seven or eight 

 inches asunder. When the plants begin to swell in the stem 

 above the surface of the ground, they must be earthed up like 

 Celery to blanch, which will make them very crisp and tender. 

 You may sow successive crops until July, after which it will 

 be too late for them to come to perfection. In case of sharp 

 frosts in autumn, they may be covered with pease-haulm, 

 which will screen them from the cold, and preserve them 

 for winter use. A small bed will suffice for a moderate 

 family ; but it will require a bed twenty feet long and four 

 broad to supply a large one. 



Angelica, ; a genus of the class Pentandria, order Digynia. 

 GENKHIC CHARACTER. Caliv : universal, umbel manifold, 

 roundish ; partial when flowering exactly globular ; univer- 

 sal involucre three or five leaved, small ; partial eight- 

 leaved, small ; proper, perianth, five-toothed, scarcely ob- 

 servable. Corolla: universal uniform ; floscules all fertile ; 

 partial, petals five, equal, lanceolate, fiattish, incurved, cadu- 

 cous. Stamina ; filamenta simple, longer than the corolla ; 

 anthers simple. Pistil: germen inferior; styles reflex ; stig- 

 mas obtuse. Pericarp: none; fruit roundish, angular, solid, 

 bipartite. Seeds: two, ovate, flat on one side, and margined, 

 convex on the other, scored with three lines. ESSENTIAI*. 

 CHARACTER. Fruit: roundish, angular, solid, with reflex 

 styles. Corolla: equal, with petals bent inwards. Every 

 species of this genus may be increased by seed ; they are 

 all hardy biennial or perennial plants. The species are, 



1. Angelica Archangel! ca ; Garden Angelica. The odd 

 leaflet of the leaves lobed. Root thick, branched, very long 

 brown on the outside, white within. The stalks of this plant 

 were formerly blanched and eaten as celery. The Norwegians 

 make bread of the roots ; and the young shoots are greatly 

 esteemed by the Laplanders. In gardens near London, 

 through which small streams of water run, great quantities 

 of this plant are propagated, the tender stalks of which are 

 2D 



