HERBS USED IN THE PRESENT TIME 19 



Gives, or Chives, or Selves {Allium Schienopraswn). 



Straightways follow'd in 

 A case of small musicians, with a din 

 Of little Hautbois, whereon each one strives 

 To show his skill ; they all were made of seivcs, 

 Excepting one, which puff'd the player's face, 

 And was a Chibole, serving for the bass. 



Britannia's Pastorals^ Book III, 



Gives and Giboules are often mentioned together, as 

 in this account of King Oberon's feast. The leaves are 

 green and hollow and look like rushes en miniature, and 

 would serve admirably for elfin Hautbois. Miss Amherst '^ 

 says that they are mentioned in a list of herbs (Sloane 

 MS., 1201) found "at the beginning of a book of 

 cookery recipes, fifteenth century." She also tells us 

 that when Kalm came to England (May 1748) he noticed 

 them among the vegetables most grown in the nursery- 

 gardens round London. They were " esteemed milder 

 than onions," and of a " quick rellish," but their fame 

 has declined in the last hundred years. Loudon says 

 that the leaves are occasionally used to flavour soup 

 salads and omelettes — unlike ciboules, the bulb is not 

 used — but the chief purpose for which I have heard 

 them required is to mix with the food for young 

 guinea-fowls and chickens. 



GoRlANDER {Coriandrum sativum). 



And Coriander last to these succeeds 



That hangs on slightest threads her trembling seeds. 



The Salad. — Cowper. 



The chief interest attached to Goriander is that in the 

 Book of Numbers, xi. 7, Manna is compared to the seed. 

 It was originally introduced from the East, but is now 

 naturalised in Essex and other places, where it has long 

 been cultivated for druggists and confectioners. The 



1 "History of Gardening in England." 



