fennel. 
( T ) There’s Fennel for you and Columbines. 
Hamlet , iv. 5, 189. 
(2) And a’ plays at quoits well, and eats conger and Fennel.— 2nd Henry 
IV, ii. 4, 266. 
ENNEL was always a plant of high reputation. 
The Plain of Marathon was so named from the 
abundance of Fennel (papadpov) growing on it. 1 
And like all strongly scented plants, it was 
supposed by the medical writers to abound in 
“virtues.” Gower, describing the star Pleiades, 
says— 
“Eke hisjierbe in speciall 
The vertuous Fenel it is.” 
Con/. Aman, lib. sept. (3, 129. Paulli.) 
These virtues cannot be told more pleasantly than by Long¬ 
fellow— 
“ Above the lowly plants it towers, 
The Fennel with its yellow flowers, 
And in an earlier age than ours 
Was gifted with the wondrous powers— 
Lost vision to restore. 
It gave men strength and fearless mood, 
And gladiators fierce and rude 
Mingled it with their daily food : 
And he who battled and subdued 
A wreath of Fennel wore.” 
“ Fennelle or Fenkelle, feniculum maratrumV—Catlwlicon Anglicnm * 
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