HERBS USED IN THE PRESENT TIME 17 



at dessert, and Canon Ellacombe says that the custom 

 of serving roast apples with a little saucerful of Caraway 

 Seed is still kept up at some of the London livery 

 dinners. It was the practice to put them among baked 

 fruits or into bread-cakes, and they were also "made 

 into comfits." In cakes and comfits they are used to-day, 

 and in Germany I have seen them served with potatoes 

 fried in slices. The roots were boiled and " eaten as 

 carrots," and made a " very welcome and delightful 

 dish to a great many," though some found them rather 

 strong flavoured. " The ^ Duchemen call it Mat kumell or 

 Wishenkumel and the Freses, Hofcumine. It groweth in 

 great plentye in Freseland in the meadows there betweene 

 MarienhofFe and Werden, hard by the sea banke." 



Celery (^Apium graveolens). 



This is quite without romance. The older herbalists did 

 not know it and Evelyn says : " Sellery . . . was formerly 

 a stranger with us (nor very long since in Italy itself). 

 . . . Nor is it a distinct species of smallage or Macedonian 

 Parsley, tho' somewhat more hot and generous, by its 

 frequent transplanting, and thereby render'd sweeter 

 scented." For its "high and grateful taste, it is ever 

 plac'd in the middle of the grand sallet, at our great 

 men's tables, and Proctor's Feasts, as the grace of the 

 whole board." But though Parkinson did not know 

 the plant under this name, he did see some of the 

 first introduced into England, and gives an interesting 

 account of this introduction to " sweete Parsley or sweet 

 Smallage. . . . This resembles sweete Fennell. . . . 

 The first that ever I saw was in a Venetian Ambassador's 

 garden in the spittle yard, near Bishop's Gate Streete. 

 The first year it is planted with us it is sweete and 

 pleasant, especially while it is young, but after it has 

 grown high and large hath a stronger taste of smallage, 



1 "Turner's Herbal," 1538. 

 B 



