THE TANSY. 103 



known as crispum is far better. This variety is of dwarfj 

 compact growth, and the colour of the leaves is brilliant 

 emerald green ; they are most elegantly cut, and delicately 

 crisped and frizzled. To insure full appreciation of the 

 beauty of this variety we should have to represent it as rare 

 and costly ; in which case, were the declaration accepted as 

 true, the plant would be regarded as wonderful and unique. 

 But it is a hard task to work up a rapture about the quali- 

 ties of anything that is " common," and so we shall close 

 this paragraph by saying that the variety crispum should 

 not be allowed to flower, and that each plant should be 

 somewhat isolated, so as to display its beauties advan- 

 tageously, for when overcrowded these do not properly 

 appear. 



Tansy puddings, tansy cakes, and tansy omelettes are, 

 perhaps, out of fashion. Bat they were certainly relished 

 in days gone by, for Gerarde speaks of them as " plea- 

 sant in taste," and he recommends tansy sweetmeats as 

 " an esi:)ecial thing against the gout, if every day for a 

 certain space a reasonable quantitie thereof be eaten 

 fasting." 



One of the most curious uses of the plant in olden 

 times, perhaps, was that of rubbing it on joints of meat 

 to prevent the attacks of flies ; but how the flavour that 

 was thereby imparted to the meat was got rid of we do 

 not know. Perhaps, as the plant was commonly used in 

 cookery, a tansy- flavoured joint of meat was always wel- 

 come, as in some parts of Europe it is customary to insert 

 a clove of garlic in the top end of a leg of mutton, that 

 in the process of cooking the entire joint may acquire the 

 flavour of the vegetable that it is almost a sin to think of 

 ill polite society. 



