62 SEA-SIDE PLANTS. 



and probably its strong aromatic flavour would 

 really render it a suitable plant for such a purpose. 

 They call the Lovage the Sea Parsley. Its acrid 

 root is occasionally chewed by the Hebridians as 

 a substitute for tobacco. The boiled or raw plant 

 seems wholesome, and some writers describe its 

 flavour as agreeable, but persons unaccustomed to 

 it would wonder how so nauseous and acrid a vege- 

 table could ever be valued or indeed used as food. 



The Lovage is an umbelliferous plant, as are the 

 samphire and some others yet to be named, and it 

 seems desirable to explain this term, as the whole 

 tribe are sufficiently alike to enable a reader un- 

 acquainted with botany to recognise any individual 

 as belonging to it. 



The Carrot and the Parsley are very familiar 

 instances of umbelliferous plants. Every one 

 knows their blossoms, and will remember that 

 the little flowers grow in a cluster on stalks, all 

 proceeding from one central point, and diverging 

 like the rays of an umbrella. Plants of this form 

 abound by our waysides, in hedges and in ditches, 

 and several on the rocks or salt marshes of our 

 shores. Their blossoms are among the least 

 attractive of our wild flowers, but they are a tribe 

 most important to man ; they are, when cultivated, 

 extensively used as food, and though the most 

 dangerous poisons lurk among their juices, yet 

 skill and science have made these very poisons 

 contribute to the recovery of lost health. The 

 Parsley, Celery, and Carrot of our tables need no 

 praise ; and even some, which, when wild, are of 

 most dangerous quality, may be safely eaten when 

 cultivated. They have mostly hollow stems, and 

 cut leaves, clusters of tiny flowers, either white or 



