anth] 



Cfjs &r?agurg of SSotang. 



74 



able. Chervil is an old-fashioned pot-herb, 

 having been cultivated by Gerarde in his 

 garden in Holborn in 15'90. It is a native 

 of various parts of Europe, and occasion- 

 ally met with in England in waste places. 

 The young leaves, when about two inches 

 high, are considered fit for gathering, and 

 are then used in soups and stews, to which 

 they impart a warm aromatic flavour. They 

 are also used with mustard and cress in 

 small salads, but are not much in demand 

 in this country. The French and Dutch,, 

 however, have scarcely a soup or salad in 

 which Chervil does not form a part ; and, 

 as a seasoner, it is by many preferred to 

 parsley. There is a curled leafed variety 

 of this plant, which makes a very hand- 

 some garnish for dishes, and is on this ac- 

 count more esteemed than the common 

 sort. The Cerfeuil frisd of the French is 

 very similar to the last, the only difference 

 being in the leaves, which are even more 

 frizzled than those of plants raised from 

 seed saved in England. Care must be 

 taken not to confound this plant with 

 Anthriscus vulgaris, the common rough 

 Chervil, which bears so great a resem- 

 blance to it as to have deceived some 

 Dutch soldiers, who gathered it, when in 

 England, in 1745, and put it into their 

 soups, by which several of them were 

 poisoned. The Parsnip Chervil, sometimes 

 called Charoplujllum bulbosum, is a native 

 of France, and, although known to gar- 

 deners since its introduction to this coun- 

 try in 1726, it is only within the last few 

 years that attention has been directed to 

 its culture as an esculent vegetable. In 

 size and shape the root attains the dimen- 

 sions of a small Dutch carrot. It is out- 

 wardly of a grey colour, but when cut the 

 flesh is white, mealy, somewhat nutty in a 

 raw state, and by no means unpleasant to 

 the taste. When boiled, the flavour is in- 

 termediate between that of the chestnut 

 and potato, in consequence of which it has 

 been recommended for cultivation as a 

 substitute for the latter root. [W. B. B.] 



ANTHURIUM. A genus of plants of the 

 Ai~nm family, or by some referred to 

 Orontiacece. The name is derived from two 

 Greek words, signifying flower-tail, and is 

 given in allusion to the inflorescence, 

 which is a spike somewhat like a tail. The 

 plants are better known under the old 

 name of Pothos. They comprise several 

 tropical plants, natives of Central or Tropi- 

 cal America, for the most part growing 

 upon trees, or in their forks, and hence 

 called epiphytes, in contradistinction to 

 parasites, which not only grow upon other 

 plants, but also derive their nourishment 

 from them. From the root-like stems the 

 leaves arise ; these are of varied shape, in 

 some entire, in others palmate or digitate, 

 sometime? with swollen leaf-stalks, but in 

 all invested below by a small sheath. The 

 stem also gives off numerous aerial roots, 

 like those of the common ivy, but on a 

 larger scale. The flowers contain both 

 stamens and pistils, enclosed within aperi- 

 anth. The ovary is two to four-celled. 



The flowers thus. constituted are densely 

 packed upon a cylindrical often almost ses- 

 sile spadix or spike,, at the base of which is 

 a large bract or spathe, which becomes 

 bent backwards as the flowers come to 

 maturity. [M.T.M.] 



ANTHYLLIS. A genus of plants belong- 

 ing to the natural order Leguminosce, her- 

 baceous or shrubby, having a permanent 

 calyx, which, after flowering, becomes in- 

 flated ; petals all nearly of equal length ; and 

 a pod always hidden by the calyx, and con- 

 taining one or two seeds. The only Bri- 

 tish species is A. Vulneraria, so called from 

 its supposed property of staunching the 

 blood of wounds, which virtue it probably 

 possesses to the same extent with many 

 other plants having equally downy leaves. 

 Its popular name is Kidney Vetch, or 

 Lady's Fingers, and it is frequently met 

 with in dry pastures, especially such as are 

 chalky, or near the sea. The leaves are 

 rather large, of a bluish tinge, hairy, 

 pinnate, with the terminal leaflet largest. 

 The flowers are most commonly yellow, 

 and grow in crowded heads, which are dis- 

 posed in pairs, with large deeply-lobed 

 bracts beneath each ; the calyx is of a deli- 

 cate straw colour. In some of the marine 

 stations — especially at the Lizard, in Corn- 

 wall — the colour of the flowers varies to a 

 remarkable extent, yellow, cream-coloured, 

 white, purple, and crimson being found all 

 growing together. Of the shrubby species, 

 A. Barba-Jovis is an evergreen shrub, a 

 native of the South of Europe. This also 

 has pinnate leaves and yellow flowers, and 

 the whole plant has a silvery appearance, 

 from which it derived its name of Jupiter's 

 Beard and the Silver-bush. ' The elegance 

 of this shrub did not escape the ancients ; 

 and Pliny mentions its beauty, adding that 

 it dislikes water, and that it makes a 

 veiy elegant ornament for gardens, when 

 clipped into a round shape. It is one of 

 the finest shrubs that can be planted 

 against a conservatory wall. It wilt grow 

 in any light soil.' [C. A. J.] 



ANTIARIS, the artocarpaceous genus of 

 plants to which the Upas-tree of Java 

 belongs. The stamens and pistils are in 

 separate flowers, on the same tree. The 

 male flowers are numerous, and enclosed 

 within a hairy involucre, formed of several 

 fleshy divisions, rolled inwards. The 

 calyx is in three or four pieces, and en- 

 closes an equal number of stalkless an- 

 thers. The female flower has an adherent 

 calyx of several leaves, and is terminated 

 by a long two-parted style. It contains a 

 single suspended ovule, and becomes con- 

 verted when ripe into a succulent drupe- 

 like fruit. The female flowers are solitar3 r , 

 placed in the axils of the leaves, side by 

 side with the heads of male floM r ers. 



The Upas-tree, when pierced, exudes a 

 milky juice, which contains an acrid viru- 

 lent poison, called antiarin. Most ex- 

 aggerated statements respectiug this plant 

 were circulated by a Dutch surgeon about 

 the close of the last century. The tree 

 was described as growing in a desert 



