238 OUR ROCK-GARDEN 



from the true parsley, but from all the other nume- 

 rous species in the large order of plants, including 

 the garden parsley, celery, carrot, fennel, samphire, 

 parsnip, and hemlock, 1 to which it, by botanical 

 affinity, belongs. The foliage, too, of the fool's 

 parsley is very glossy and of a dull bluish-green, 

 while that of the true parsley is of a bright, clear 

 green. When the leaves of the genuine parsley are 

 rubbed or bruised they give out the fragrant odour 

 with which we are all familiar ; but the leaves of 

 the wild plant emit an unpleasant smell when 

 crushed, so that it seems in every way impossible 

 for a cook who had ordinary eyesight or a reason- 

 ably good nose to chop up one plant for the other. 

 We may with good conscience allow our aethusa 

 to remain, for whatever of arrant carelessness of 

 selection might happen in the kitchen garden, it 

 is scarcely likely that the cook would visit the 

 master's pet rockery and scramble over it in search 

 of culinary herbs. 



The name aethusa is derived from the Greek 

 word signifying to burn, a name bestowed on our 

 plant from its acrid nature, while the specific name, 

 also Greek in its origin, means dog's parsley, an 

 old equivalent of the modern popular name, and 

 implying its inferiority to the real thing. Thus in 

 another case we get the name dog-violet, a title 



1 Parkinson, in his " Theatrum Botanicum," calls the 

 sethusa " The Foolish Hemlocke or Counterfet Parsley." 



