THE WILD CHERVIL— continued. 
to treat Anthriscus, therefore, merely as a sub-genus of Ch<erophyllum. The latter 
genus may then be described as more or less hairy plants, annual or perennial, with 
much divided leaves ; compound, many-rayed umbels, with few or no bracts at the 
base of the main umbel, but several bracteoles below the secondary umbels ; with 
flowers usually white, but sometimes yellow ; inconspicuous sepals ; obcordate petals 
with inflexed tips ; and fruits compressed laterally, very shortly beaked, with five 
equal blunt primary ridges, not prominent and often only discernible on the beak, 
and either without vittae or with one between each pair of ridges. 
Of the four species which occur in Britain, one, CLerophyllum sativum Lamarck, 
or Anthriscus Cerefolium Hoffmann, is the Garden Chervil, long used as a salad plant 
and probably only an escape from cultivation. This is, perhaps, the plant to which 
Dioscorides’s name Ch<erophyllum or rather g cupe(f>v\\oi’ , chairephullon , originally 
applied. It is derived apparently from gal pa>, chairo , I rejoice, and (f>v\\ou, phullon , 
a leaf ; and Gerard, translating Dodoens, explains that 
“ It is thought to be called so because it delighteth to grow with many leaves ; or rather in that it causeth joy and gladness.” 
The Greek Chairephullon , which Linnaeus chose to transliterate as Cheerophyllum , had 
long before been rendered into Latin as Cerefolium. 
Chxrophyllum sylvestre Linne, the Anthriscus sylvestris of Hoffmann, is one of our 
commonest weeds in meadows, orchards, and hedgerows. With an erect furrowed 
stem, reaching three feet in height, hairy below but smooth in its upper parts, 
branched, leafy, and hollow, with slight swellings below each node, it has bipinnate 
leaves with pinnatifid serrate leaflets and terminal, stalked umbels which droop in the 
bud stage. The outer florets of the umbel are asymmetric in their corollas, the 
petals nearer to the circumference of the umbel being larger than the others, thus 
adding to the conspicuousness of the inflorescence as a whole. The flowers are 
markedly protandrous, being all in a male or staminate condition in an umbel and 
shedding their stamens before the stigmas become receptive. The central flowers of 
the umbel are often exclusively staminate. The honey is exposed in the centre of 
the flower and is collected by numerous insects. 
While the petals are white, the bracteoles, which are usually about five in 
number, are often tinged with pink ; and the plant is generally noticeable as the 
earliest of its kind to blossom, being often out in April. The fruits are smooth, 
shining, and narrower at their upper ends. 
Eaten eagerly by many animals, the plant is known as Rabbit-meat, Coney-Parsley , 
Hare Parsley, Ass Parsley , Dog s , Pig's , or Sheep's Parsley , Cow Parsley , or Cow-weed ; 
and also by a series of names indicating that it is not fit for human food, such as 
Devil's Parsley , Devil's Oatmeal , and Naughty Man s Oatmeal , these last two names 
being supposed to refer partly to the little meal-like flowers. 
