ON THE ONION FAMILY 



A more tangible property, and one that is likely 

 to appeal to the user of the plant, is the shape and 

 quality of the leaves. I have worked on the curled 

 parsley to some extent and have found that by 

 careful selection it can be improved greatly in a 

 few years. The different tendencies of the leaves 

 can be fixed quite readily in three or four genera- 

 tions. 



At one time I also developed a golden-leaved 

 parsley, something like the golden-leaved celery. 

 This was a plant of great promise and I expected 

 to introduce it. But greatly to my regret, it was 

 destroyed by millipeds just before it was ready to 

 produce seed. 



I have never seen another specimen, but of 

 course similar mutants might appear at any time, 

 for what has happened once to a plant may 

 happen again. 



Another genus of the parsley family, 

 Ligusticum of the botanist and commonly known 

 as lovage, is cultivated to some extent in our 

 gardens for its aromatic seeds. There is a Cali- 

 fornia species (L. Canadense) that grows along 

 the ground, and seeds quite commonly in Northern 

 California. The root is gathered and used by the 

 Chinese. 



I have worked with this and with several allied 

 species very extensively for a number of years. 



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