Anethum 



Anethum. 



' florem bene olentis anethi ' (Ec. ii. 48). 



'vetus adstricti fascis pendebat anethi' (Mor. 59). 



In our first passage Virgil follows the Sicilian 

 poets, and probably did not know what plant he 

 meant. In Greek the name usually meant dill ; but 

 it may well be doubted whether in Sicily, where 

 this plant was not native, the name was not applied 

 to the nearest native species. This was fennel (Foeni- 

 culum vulgare), a common plant in the lower ground 

 of Italy and Sicily. When it was gathered the 

 bunches were dried in the sun and used in cookery. 



In Pliny and other writers our name means ' dill ' 

 (Anethum graveolens). The dried leaves were used 

 to flavour soups. 



Flower, July and August. 

 Italian name, Finocchio (fennel). 

 Aneto (dill). 



Apium. 



' virides apio ripae ' (Ge. iv. 121). 

 — ' apio criues ornatus amaro ' (Ec. vi. 68). 



The lexicons call this plant parsley, but they are 

 certainly wrong, as Virgil's epithet alone should 

 have shown them. His plant is smallage or celery 

 (ApiuTii graveolens), the Greek aeXtvov, which gave 

 its name to the Sicilian city. Celery likes to grow, 

 where Virgil puts it, with its toes in water; while 

 parsley, nowhere known as a wild plant, naturalizes 

 itself, as Hooker says, ' on castle walls and in waste 



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