CORIANDER 



251 



slightly concave on the side which joins the other seed, and 

 lighter in colour than the outer and convex side, which is 

 brown-yellow and marked 

 with deep longitudinal 

 furrows. Their germi- 

 nating power lasts for six 

 years. The Coriander 

 likes a warm and rather 

 light soil. The seed is 

 sown in autumn or spring, 

 and the crop comes in 

 in summer. 



Uses. — The seeds 

 form an important article 

 of commerce. They are 

 used in the manufacture 

 of liqueurs, and in a great 

 number of culinary pre- 

 parations. Some writers 

 say the leaves are used for 

 seasoning, but this state- 

 ment seems odd, as all the green parts of the plant exhale a very 

 strong odour of the wood-bug, whence the Greek name of the plant. 



CORN-SALAD. Mdche. 



A great number of kinds of Corn-salad, before running to seed, 

 form rosettes of tender edible leaves. The genus Valerianella, to 

 which they all belong, is very rich in species, and these are not 

 always easily distinguished from one another. They are, for the 

 most part, small plants of rapid growth, flowering but once, their 

 entire period of cultivation embracing the latter part of one year 

 and the early part of the next. They generally run to seed in 

 April or May, and the seed, falling to the ground as soon as it is 

 ripe, seldom germinates before August. Amongst the most com- 

 monly gro>wn kinds are Valerianella olitoria and V. etiocarpa. 



COMMON CORN-SALAD, or LAMB'S-LETTUCE 



Valerianella olitoria^ Moench. ValerianacecB. 



French, Mache commune. German, Feldsalat. Flemish and Dutch, Koornsalad. 

 Italian, Erba riccia. Spanish^ Canonigos. Portuguese, Herva benta. 



Native of Europe. — An annual autumnal plant, that is, germi- 

 nating from seed in autumn and flowering and seeding in the 

 ensuing spring. — Radical leaves sessile, of an elongated spoon- 

 shape, and of a slightly gray-green colour, with rather strongly 



Coriander. 



