48 THE BOOK OF HERBS 



mended for the time of Lent, in a day when Lent was 

 more strictly kept than it is now, because they are 

 supposed to go well with fish. Alexanders resemble 

 celery, by which it has been almost entirely sup- 

 planted, and if desired as food should be sown every 

 year, for though it continues to grow, it produces 

 nothing fit for the table after the second year. Pliny 

 says it should be " digged or delved over once or twice, 

 yea, and at any time from the blowing of the western 

 wind Favonius in Februarie, until the later Equinox in 

 September be past." The reference to Favonius re- 

 minds one of those lines of exquisite freshness translated 

 from Leonidas. 



Tis time to sail — the swallow's note is heard ! 

 Who chattering down the soft west wind is come. 

 The fields are all a-flower, the waves are dumb, 

 Which ersts the winnowing blast of winter stirred. 



Loose cable, friend, and bid your anchor rise, 

 Crowd all your canvas at Priapus' hest, 

 Who tells you from your harbours, "Now, 'twere best, 

 Sailor, to sail upon your merchandise." 



Angelica {Archangelka officinalis). 



Contagious aire, ingendring pestilence, 



Infects not those that in their mouths have ta'en, 



Angelica that happy Counterbane, 



Sent down from heav'n by some celestial scout, 



As well the name and nature both avow't. 



Du Bartas — Sylvester's Tkanslation, 1641. 



And Master-wort, whose name Dominion wears, 

 With her, who an Angelick Title bears. 



Of Plants^ book ii. — Cowley, 



As these lines declare, Angelica was believed to have 

 sprung from a heavenly origin, and greatly were its 

 powers revered. Parkinson says, " All Christian nations 

 likewise in their appellations hereof follow the Latine 

 name as near as their Dialect will permit, onely in Sussex 



