SUCCULENT ROOTS AND THEIR USE AS FOOD. mien i: 
ciently interesting for one reason or another to be worth at least 
brief mention here. 
Chervil is a plant, two forms of which are common in Europe. 
One of them (Anthriscus cerefolium) 1s sometimes called sweet cicely 
and is cultivated mainly for its leaves, which are used as a salad. 
The other, known as tuberous or turnip-rooted chervil (Cherophyl- 
lum bulbosum), is a true root vegetable. The roots are about the 
size and shape of small carrots and are gray or blackish on the out- 
side, with yellow-white flesh and with a distinctive flavor. They are 
used in much the same way as young carrots. Seedsmen offer the 
seeds, but they have never been common in the United States. 
The chufa, or nut grass, or earth almond, for it is known by all of 
these names, is the small tuberous root of a sedgelike plant which 
has a flavor suggesting nuts. A native of southern Kurope, it is now 
cultivated in many countries. Though used as a food in a limited 
way, it is chiefly important as a feeding stuff. The chufa nuts are 
well known to children in the Southern States. 
The bulbs of various lilies are eaten in the Orient and are on sale 
in Chinese quarters and served in Chinese restaurants in many Ameri- 
can cities. The American Indians ate and to a small extent still use 
lily bulbs or corms, both roasted and raw, including the Indian 
cucumber (Medeola virginica), a relative of the trillium, the roots of 
water lilies, and many other wild roots, few of which have been taken 
over into the diet of other peoples. 
ROOTS USED AS CONDIMENTS. 
Several roots have pronounced aromatic qualities which give them 
a condimental value quite independent of the nutritive material 
which they contain. In addition to increasing the flavor of foods, it 
seems possible that such condiments may stimulate the flow of diges- 
tive juices as well as please the palate. Horse-radish and ginger are 
the most common condimental roots, though chicory, so commonly 
considered in Europe a palatable addition to coffee, may also be men- 
tioned, as well as licorice root and calamus, or sweet flag, and wild 
ginger, or snakeroot. 
Horse-radish is a moisture-loving plant of the mustard family 
which is cultivated throughout north-temperate countries and is 
very frequently found wild in the United States, as it long ago 
escaped from cultivation. The root is long, rather slender, and has 
a sharp, peppery flavor, owing to the presence of an essential oil 
which much resembles in general character that in the radish and 
other members of the mustard family. As regards composition, 
horse-radish contains on an average 86.4 per cent water, 1.4 per cent 
protein, 0.2 per cent fat, 10.5 per cent total carbohydrates, and 1.5 
