272 STURTEVANT S NOTES ON EDIBLE PLANTS 



it growing wild in the neighborhood of Buenos Aires, Monti video and other towns. The 

 leaves are used in sauces, the stalks eaten in salads, and the seeds are employed in con- 

 iectionery and for flavoring liquors. Fennel is constantly mentioned in the Anglo-Saxon 

 medical recipes which date as early, at least, as the eleventh century. The diffusion 

 of the plant in central Europe was stimulated by Charlemagne, who enjoined its cultiva- 

 tion on the imperial farms. Fennel shoots, fennel water and fennel seed are all men- 

 tioned in an ancient record of Spanish agriculture of 961 A. D.' There are three different 

 forms recognized, all believed to belong to the common species. 



Bitter Fennel. 

 In 1863, Burr ^ describes a common and a dark-leaved form; in 1586, Lyte's Dodoens' 

 Herball describes in like manner two varieties. This is the common wild sort, hardy and 

 often spontaneous as an escape from gardens. Bitter fennel is the Anethum foeniculum 

 Linn., 1763, and the Foeniculum of Camerarius,' 1586. Sometimes, but rarely, the leaves 

 are used for seasoning but the plant is grown chiefly for its seeds which are largely used 

 in flavoring liquors. Bitter fennel appears to be the common fennel or finckle of Ray, 

 1686, and the foennel and Jyncle of Turner, 1538. 



Sweet Fennel. 



This form is cultivated more frequently as a garden plant than the preceding, and 

 its seeds are also an object of commerce. As the plant grows old, the fruits of each suc- 

 ceeding season gradually change in shape and diminish in size, until, at the end of four 

 or five years, they are hardly to be distinguished from those of the bitter fennel. This 

 curious fact was noted by Tabemaemontanus, 1588, and was systematically proved by 

 Guibort, 1869.'' This kind has, however, remained distinct from an early date. It is 

 described by Albertus Magnus ^ in the thirteenth century and by Charlemagne in the 

 ninth. It is mentioned throughout Europe, in Asia, and in America as an aromatic, 

 garden herb. The famous carosella, so extensively used in Naples, scarcely known in 

 any other place, is referred by authors to F. piperitum DC. The plant is used while in 

 the state of running to bloom; the stems, fresh and tender, are broken and served raw, still 

 enclosed in the expanded leaf -stalks. This use is, perhaps, referred to by Amatus Lusi- 

 tanus,'' 1554, when, in speaking of finocchio, he says the swollen stalk is collected and 

 said to be eaten. 



Finocchio. 



This form is very distinct in its broad leaf-stalks, which, overlapping each other at 

 the base of the stem, form a bulbous enlargement, firm, white and sweet inside. This 



' Fliickiger and Hanbury Pharm. 308. 1879. 



Burr, F. Field, Card. Veg. ^o. 1863. 



' Dodoens jfferft. 305. 1586. Lyte Ed. 



* Fluckiger and Hanbury Pharm. 308. 1879. 



' Albertus Magnus Beg. Jessen Ed. 517. 1867. 



'Vilmorin Veg. Card. 2^6. 1885. 



' Dioscorides Amatus Lusitanus Ed. 338. 1554. 



