41 6 sturtevant's notes on edible plants 



cultivated for its leaves and seeds. The former are used as flavors in soups and sauces, 

 and the seeds are added to pickled cucumbers to heighten the flavor. In India, the seeds 

 are much used for culinary and medicinal purposes. The seeds are to be found in every 

 Indian bazaar and form one of the chief ingredients in curry powder.* 



P. nudicaule Nutt. symrnium. 



Western North America. The Indians boil the tops in soups the same as we use 

 celery.^ Beckwith ' says the roots are used as food by the Indians of the West. 



P. ostruthium Koch, masterwort. 



Europe. The foliage was formerly boiled and eaten as a potherb.* 



P. palustre Moench. marsh hog's fennel, milk parsley. 



Europe. The roots are used in Russia as a substitute for ginger.' 



P. sativum Benth. & Hook. f. parsnip. 



Europe and North America. The parsnip is a biennial, the root of which has been 

 in use as an esculent from an early period. The Emperor Tiberius, according to Pliny,* 

 was so fond of parsnips that he had them brought annually from Germany, from the 

 neighborhood of Gelduba on the Rhine, where they were said to be grown in great per- 

 fection. The wild plant, according to Don,' is a native of Europe even to the Caucasus; 

 in North America, on the banks of the Saskatchewan and Red River; in South America 

 about Buenos Aires; and is naturalized in northeastern America. The root of the wild 

 plant is spindle-shaped, white, aromatic, mucilaginous and sweet, with a degree of acrimony. 

 From the seeds of the wild variety in the garden of the Royal Agricultural Society at 

 Cirencester,* originated the highly-appreciated garden variety known as Student. It 

 has been supposed that the pastinaca of the Romans included the carrot and the parsnip, 

 and that the elaphoboscon of Pliny * was the parsnip. Pliny describes the medicinal virtues 

 of the elaphoboscon and says it is much esteemed as a food. The references, however, 

 do not prove this plant to be cultivated, nor do the references to the pastinaca satisfactorily 

 indicate the parsnip. One is willing to accept such evidence as we find that the cultivated 

 parsnip was known to the ancient Greeks and Romans. Among the early botanists, 

 there is much confusion in names between the carrot and the parsnip. The root must, 

 however, have come into general use long before these records and perhaps its cultiye 

 started in Germany, as it seems to have been imknown to Ruellius,'* 1536, but is recorded 

 by Fuchsius " in Germany, 1542, who gives a figure but calls it gross zam mosen. The 



' Drury, H. Useful Pis. 0} Ind. 43. 1873. 



' Pursh, F. Fl. Amer. Septent. 1:1^. 1814. 



' Beckwith Pacific R. R. Rpt. Survey 2:121. 1855. 



* Johnson, C. P. Useful Pis. Gt. Brit. 126. 1862. 

 ' Ibid. 



Booth, W.B. Treoi. Bo/. 2:851. 1870. 

 'Don, G. Hist. Dichl. Pis. 3:338. 1834. 

 ' Journ. Roy. Agr. Soc. 15:125. 1854. 



Pliny lib. 22, c. 37. 



" Ruellius Nal. Slirp. 1536. 

 ^'PxichsMS Hist. Stir p 1542. 



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