CULINARY HERBS 57 



whence it has spread to many cool -European 

 climates, especially Lapland and the Alps, where it 

 has become naturalized. 



Description. Its roots are long, spindle-shaped, 

 fleshy, and sometimes weigh three pounds ; its stems 

 stout, herbaceous, fluted, often more than 4 feet tall, 

 and hollow; its leaves long-stalked, frequently 3 

 feet in length, reddish purple at the clasping bases, 

 and composed, in the larger ones, of numerous small 

 leaflets, in three principal groups, which are each 

 subdivided into three lesser groups; its flowers yel- 

 lowish or greenish, small and numerous, in large 

 roundish umbels ; its seeds pale yellow, membran- 

 ous-edged, oblong flattened on one side, convex on 

 the other, which is marked with three conspicuous 

 ribs. 



Cultivation. Since the seeds lose their vitality 

 rapidly, rarely being viable after the first year, they 

 should be sown as soon as ripe in late summer or 

 early autumn, or not later than the following spring 

 after having been kept during the winter in a cold 

 storeroom. The soil should be moderately rich, 

 rather light, deep, well drained, but moist and well 

 supplied with humus. It should be deeply prepared 

 and kept loose and open as long as tools can be used 

 among the plants, which may be left to care for 

 themselves as soon as they shade the ground well. 



In the autumn, the seeds may be sown where the 

 plants are to remain or preferably in a nursery bed, 

 which usually does not need protection during the 

 winter. In the spring a mild hotbed, a cold frame 

 or a nursery bed in the garden may be used, accord- 



