282 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 



matic smell ; and was formerly esteemed of 

 use in warming and strengthening the sto- 

 mach, for which reason the young leaves ob- 

 tained a place among culinary herbs, their 

 juice being used in puddings, &c. 



Boerhaave says, " This balsamic plant may 

 supply the place of nutmegs and cinnamon. 

 For I believe Asia does not afford a plant of 

 greater fragrancy than tansy." Notwith- 

 standing this high encomium, tansy is now 

 but rarely used as a domestic vegetable, and 

 our change of custom and habits, as well as 

 of diet, has caused this plant to be neglected, 

 although it was considered so necessary to 

 health by our forefathers, particularly when 

 Lent was more strictly observed as a fast. 

 It was then usual to make cakes at Easter 

 of eggs, flour, and the tender leaves of tansy, 

 which were not only esteemed good, but ne- 

 cessary to be eaten at that season, to relieve 

 the stomach of phlegm, occasioned by a con- 

 tinuation of fish diet, as also on account of 

 its discussing the flatulencies generated by 

 eating pulse during this fast. The practice 

 of making Easter cakes to offer to visitors, is 

 still kept up in most parts of the country, 

 but we no longer hear of tansy as an ingre- 

 dient in them ; and indeed we may observe, 



