? 
1887] History of Garden Vegetables. 709 
CHERVIL. Scandix cerefolium L. 
The leaves of chervil are aromatic, and are much used in 
England for seasoning and in salads.” It was mentioned as cul- 
tivated by Columella, Pliny, and Palladius, Roman authors of 
the first and third centuries. It also finds description as a culti- 
vated plant in the botanies of the sixteenth century. It was in 
American gardens in 1806.2. But two varieties are now in use, 
—the plain-leaved and the curled,—and these are mentioned by 
Petit? in France in 1826; and yet chervil is noted as one of the 
most widely diffused and best known of all pottage plants.‘ 
Chervil is called, in France, Cerfeuil; in Germany, Kerbel; in 
Flanders and Holland, Kervel; in Denmark, Aavekjowel; in 
Italy, cerfoglio ; in Spain, perifollo ; in Portugal, cerefolio. 
Cuick-Pea. Cicer arietinum L. 
This vegetable is a favorite with southern nations, and finds 
occasional culture among the recent emigrants to the United 
_ States, or by their descendants. While not grown on a large 
scale in the United States, it forms an article of extended culture 
in the Iberian peninsula, and in India,® Egypt, Greece, etc.? The 
Shape of the seed, singularly resembling a ram’s head while in 
an unripe state, may account for its being regarded as unclean 
by the Egyptians of the time of Herodotus.2 It was in common 
use in ancient Rome, and varieties are mentioned by Columella? 
_ and Pliny,” the latter naming the white and the black, the Dove, 
or Venus pea, and many kinds differing from each other in size. 
Albertus Magnus," in the thirteenth century, mentions the red, 
the white, and the black sorts, and this mention of colors is con- 
tinued by the herbalists of the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eigh- 
| teenth centuries. The white chick-pea is the sort now generally 
grown in France, where the dried seed find large use in soups. 
The red variety is now exterisively grown in the Eastern countries, 
_ and the black sort is described as more curious than useful. 
-* Vilmorin, The Veg. Gard., 1885, 192. ? McMahon, Am. Gard. Kal., 1806, 
m piri Dict. du Jard., 1826. 4 Vilmorin, Les PI. Pot., 78. a 
tie , Cours d’Agr., iii. 796. 6 Elliot, Bot. Soc. of Edinb., vii. 294. 
a 
Paaa Grog Dist af Ak and Pi 46 
* Abers i lib. ix. c. 1. 10 ee lib. xviii. fog 
Albertus Magnus, De Veg., Jessen ed., 1867, 490. 
