CULINARY HERBS 83 



China. It has been used in cookery and of course, 

 too, in medicine ; for, according to ancient reasoning, 

 anything with so pronounced and unpleasant an 

 odor must necessarily possess powerful curative or 

 preventive attributes ! Its seeds have been found in 

 Egyptian tombs of the 21st dynasty. Many cen- 

 turies later Pliny wrote that the best quality of seed 

 still came to Italy from Egypt. Prior to the Nor- 

 man conquest in 1066, the plant was well known in 

 Great Britain, probably having been taken there by 

 the early Roman conquerors. Before 1670 it was 

 introduced into Massachusetts. During this long 

 period of cultivation there seems to be no record or 

 even indication of varieties. In many temperate 

 and tropical countries it has become a frequent weed 

 in cultivated fields. 



Description. — From a cluster of slightly divided 

 radical leaves branching stems rise to heights of 2 

 to 2^ feet. Toward their summits they bear much 

 divided leaves, with linear segments and umbels of 

 small whitish flowers, followed by pairs of united, 

 hemispherical, brownish-yellow, deeply furrowed 

 "seeds," about the size of a sweet pea seed. These 

 retain their vitality for .five or six years. The 

 seeds do not have the unpleasant odor of the plant, 

 but have a rather agreeable smell and a moderately 

 warm, pungent taste. 



Cultivation. — Coriander, a plant of the easiest cul- 

 ture, does best in a rather light, warm, friable soil. 

 In Europe it is often sown with caraway, which, 

 being a biennial and producing only a rosette of 

 leaves at the surface of the ground the first year, is 



