FENNEL. 



293 



are served up with mackarel in many parts of England. The 

 blanched stalks of the Sweet Fennel are eaten with vinegar, 

 oil and pepper as a cold salad, and much esteemed by the Ita- 

 lians, who likewise use them in soups. In Germany, the seeds 

 are used as a condiment in bread and various dishes. 



The whole plant has a fragrant, aromatic odour *, which is 

 most developed, however, in the leaves and seeds. It is warm, 

 sweetish, and aromatic to the taste, and becomes more agree- 

 able on being dried. Chemical analysis has procured from the 

 seeds an aromatic and sweet volatile oil, a small quantity of 

 fatty oil which is congealed by cold, an aromatic resinous bit- 

 terish extract, and an aqueous extract, which is almost inert. 

 Water extracts its virtues by infusion very imperfectly, but 

 distillation in that fluid elevates the whole of its active proper- 

 ties, which are also obtained by digestion in alcohol. Accord- 

 ing to Matthiolus, when the stems of this plant are cut, in warm 

 climates, there exudes a gum-resin, which is collected by the 

 inhabitants under the name of fennel gum. 



Medical Properties and UsES.—Fennel was well known to 

 the ancients. Hippocrates f and Dioscorides+ employed it to 

 increase the secretion of milk : the latter says, the herb and 

 seeds if eaten, or boiled in broth, fill the breasts with milk. 

 Pliny reiterates the old opinion, that serpents when they cast 

 their skins resort to this plant to restore their sight § ; hence 

 its reputed effects in dimness of sight and blindness |1. It has 



A savoury odour blown, 



Grateful to appetite, more pleased my sense 

 Than smell of sweetest fennel or the teats 

 Of ewe or goat dropping with milk at even." 



Milton, Par. Lost, book ix. 1. 579. 

 f De Morb. ::Mu1. lib. i. sect. v. p. 608. Foes. 

 + Mat. Med. lib. iii. c. 81, p- 205. Sarac. 



§ Foeniculum nobilitavere serpentes gustatu senectam exuendo, oculorum 

 aciem succu ejus reficiendo. Hist. lib. xx. c. 23, p. 538. He also speaks 

 of its medicinal uses,-" Trodest hydropicis, item convulsis, calculos vesica 

 pellit, geniturae abundantiam quoque modo haustum facit." /. c. 

 II This gave rise to the ancient distich, 



" Foeniculum, Rosa, Verbena, CheUdonia, Ruta, 

 Ex his fit aqua, quae lumina reddit acuta." 

 Translated by Gerard, — 



" Of Fennell, Roses, Veruain, Rue, and Celandine, 

 Is made a water good to cleere the sight of eine." 



