594 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



'Artichoke" is really a corruption of the Itahan Articiocco, itself a 

 corruption of the Arabic Al harshaf. 



The " receptacle " has a delicate flavour, but contains little nutritive 

 matter. 



Celery and Celeriac. 



Celery in ancient times was regarded as a kind of parsley, under the 

 name Paludapium, i.e. *' Marsh Parsley," being a more or less aquatic 

 plant. The Latin name selinon, adopted from the Greek, is mentioned 

 by Lucius Appuleius (163 a.d.). This gave rise to the Piedmontese 

 Italian seleri, and thence to the English words. 



In the Middle Ages it was called Merche and Smallage, but Apium 

 by the apothecaries and herbalists, being much used in medicine. In 

 the Eastern parts bordering the Mediterranean the foliage is used for 

 flavouring, as in Malta, Italy, and the Levant, but never blanched, 

 ib was only used medicinally in the sixteenth century ; for Gerard says : 

 ** This is not woonted to be eaten, neither is it counted good for sauce." 



Parkinson (1640) observes: " It is not to be endured to be eaten 

 alone, but, being boyled and otherwise dressed, it favoureth better." 

 But he seems only to signify its use as a drug, and not as food. It 

 appears to have been first blanched about 1670; for Sharrock in his 

 book on vegetables devotes a section to the Blanching or Whiting of 

 Sallad Herbs," such as the succories, &c. ; he does not specify the 

 celery; but Salmon in his EngUsh Physician" (1693) writing on 

 the virtues of Apium palustre, says: It is either of the marsh, called 

 by the common name Smallage, or of the garden (made white and 

 crisp by laying earth upon it), called Sallary, as being used for a 

 salet-herb." In Wheeler's " Botanists' and Gardeners' Dictionary " 

 (1758) it is said: "A variety of it, called the Smallage, is seldom, 

 cultivated in gardens. But there are two sorts found in the gardens, 

 distinguished by the names of the Italian Celleri and the Celleriac." 



Miller, in his " Gardeners' Dictionary " (1771), says: " The fourth 

 sort is commonly known by the title of Smallage. This is what the j 

 physicians intend when they prescribe Apium. This plant grows natu- j 

 rally by the sides of brooks and ditches in many parts of England, 

 so is rarely cultivated in gardens." He then describes the fifth sort 

 as Apium dulce, the upright Celery, and A. rapacium, the Celeriac 

 or turnip -rooted Celery. It should be remembered that the wild and 

 green plant is unwholesome, if not actually poisonous, but when 

 blanched all suspicious qualities are prevented from arising. In Malta 

 to-day the green tops are alone used, boiled, as the Maltese do not 

 blanch the leaf-stalks. 



There is not much nutriment in Celery, as there is over 93 per 

 cent, of water. The chief constituents are sugar 2 per cent. , and starch 

 with mucilage 1*6, the mineral matters being 0'8 per cent. The 

 nutrient ratio is 1 :4*5, and the nutrient value less than 5. 



