PARSLEY 



483 



but, like the Bulbous-rooted Chervil, was taken in hand and intro- 

 duced into cultivation at a comparatively recent date. 



Amongst plants which are not yet in cultivation, and especially 

 amongst the biennial Umbelliferous plants, it might be possible to 

 bring some of them to produce fleshy roots of sufficient size to form 

 useful vegetables. The 

 result of one experiment 

 which was undertaken by 

 us for a purely scientific 

 purpose confirms this 

 opinion. The Beaked 

 Parsley {Anthriscus sylves- 

 irzs, L.), a wild plant of 

 our woods, at the end of 

 ten years' repeated sowings 

 and methodical selection, 

 produced in some sowings 

 a proportion of one-half 

 or more of simple, clean- 

 skinned, fusiform roots, as 

 regular in shape as the best roots of the Hamburgh Parsley. Now, 

 in the wild state the root of this plant is as forked and divided as 

 that of the Celery. The progress made, therefore, was considerable, 

 and it is to be observed that the plants thus improved represented 

 only the fifth generation from the wild plant, as the Anthriscus^ 

 being a biennial, does not seed until the second year. 



PARSNIPS 



Pastinaca sativa^ L. Umhelliferce. 



French, Panais. German. Pastinake. Flemish and Dutch^ Pastenaak. Danish, 

 Pastinak. Italian^ Pastinaca. Spanish, Chirivia. Portuguese, Pastinaga. 



Native of Europe. — Biennial. — Root a very long tap, white, 

 swollen, and fleshy ; radical leaves divided, as far as the midrib, 

 into irregular toothed segments ; leaf-stalks overlapping, and often 

 violet-coloured at the base ; stem hollow, furrowed, branching, 

 bearing at the extremity broad umbels of green flowers, succeeded 

 by flat, almost circular seeds, which are winged at the margin, 

 light brown, and marked with five raised lines or ridges. The 

 germinating power of the seeds lasts for two years. 



Culture. — Parsnips are grown in the same manner as 

 Carrots, only they may be sown earlier in the year — about the 

 end of February or early in March. The seed cannot always 

 be depended on for germinating, and, in dry climates often 



Early Hamburgh Parsley (i natural size). 



