64 SEA-SIDE PLANTS. 



one of those which seem especially to luxuriate on 

 the rocks around our coasts. It is the common 

 Alexanders (Smyrniumolusatrum), or, as the people 

 in some places term it, the Salamanders. The 

 stem is about three or four feet high and very thick 

 and furrowed, and the leaves are of a bright yellow 

 green. It was formerly much used as a pot-herb, 

 and it appears to be perfectly wholesome, though 

 by what means those who ate it were brought to 

 think its flavour agreeable one would wonder much, 

 for its very odour is most offensive, and it is very 

 pungent. Yet that it was really much used and 

 valued in bygone times appears from the fact that 

 its botanic name was formed from olus, a pot-herb, 

 and ater, black, the latter word probably alluding 

 to its black fruits. Pliny says of it, that the juice 

 smelt like myrrh, and its generic name Smyrnium 

 is a synonyme of the name of that valued resin. 

 It would probably be improved by culture. The 

 French call it Maceron. 



The common Fennel (Foeniculum vulgare) is 

 another plant of the umbelliferous tribe, which is 

 very plentiful on the chalky cliffs of England by 

 the sea, and also on chalky soils near salt marshes. 

 It is rarely found inland, except in the neigh- 

 bourhoods of some towns but little removed from 

 the coast. It is well known in the eastern parts 

 of England, by its frequent culture in the kitchen- 

 garden , where it is planted, that its boiled leaves 

 may be served up with mackerel, though our 

 modern gardeners happily for morality have 

 forgotten the old notion, that the Fennel would not 

 thrive unless the plants were stolen. It has a 

 hollow stem, three or four feet high, and slender 

 dark green leaves, and may at once be known 



