History of Garden Vegetables. 421 
change in shape and diminish in size, till at the end of four or five 
years they are hardly to be distinguished from those of the bitter 
fennel. This curious fact was noted by Tabernemontanus in 1588, 
and was systematically proven by Guibort, 1869.1! This kind has, 
however, remained distinct from an early date. It is described by 
Albertus Magnus? in the thirteenth century, and by Charlemagne 
in the ninth. It is mentioned as a plant of the garden in nearly 
all the earlier botanies. It is cultivated throughout Europe, in 
Asia and in America as an aromatic garden herb. 
The famous “carosella,” so extensively used in Naples, and 
scarcely known in any other place, is referred by authors to F. pipe- 
rium D. C., a species very near to F. officinale. The plant is used 
while in the act of running to bloom; the stems, fresh and tender, 
and broken and served up raw, still enclosed in the expanded leaf 
stalks.* It is, perhaps, referred to by Amatus Lusitanus‘ in 1554, 
when, in speaking of the finocchio (It.) he says the swollen stalk is 
collected and said to be eaten, “quod caule turgescente colligitur et 
esui dicatur.” 
The common or sweet fennel or Roman fennel is called in France 
fenouil doux, fenouil de Florence, fenouil de Malta, anis de France, 
anis de Paris; in Italy, carosella. These names also seem to apply 
in part to the next kind. In Turkestan, shabit.® 
Finocchio. F. dulce D C. 
This form is very distinct in its broad leaf-stalks, which, over- 
lapping each other at the base of the stem, form a bulbous enlarge- ` 
ment, firm, white and sweet inside. It seems to be the Finochi or 
Italian Fennel, stated by Switzer,’ in 1729, to have but recently 
been introduced to English culture, and yet rare in 1765 ;° but the 
first distinct mention I find is by Mawe, in 1778, under the name 
of Azorian Dwarf or Finocchio. It is again described in a very 
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