THE UMBELLIFERS (THE CARROT FAMILY)

The term Umbelliferae refers to plants whose flower stalks radiate from a single point like the ribs of an umbrella.

UMBELLIFERS WITH FENNEL-LIKE LEAVES

Provided with smaller striated seeds.

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False Spignel original: "Meum spurium". This is the first of the Umbellifers with giant-fennel-like leaves original: "Ferulacearum" that possess smaller and shorter striated seeds. It has harder, thicker, and bushier leaves than the common kind, with a somewhat poisonous smell; in some way, it mimics the narrow-leaved French Rue. From the base of these leaves, slanted stems emerge, reaching a foot or sometimes a foot and a half in height, supporting the smaller grooved seeds. The root is larger, with the appearance and consistency of Hog’s Fennel, dark on the outside, and having a foul and unpleasant taste as well as smell. I do not know by what right authors have given it the name "False Spignel," since it has no affinity with Spignel original: "Meo Athamantico" in smell, taste, or other characteristics. It closer approaches the class of Meadow Saxifrage original: "seselion" (following Johannes Pona) in both smell and taste; but since it is an Umbelliferous plant with fennel-like leaves and smaller striated seeds, we have—being little concerned with names—reduced it to the group of its own likeness.

False Spignel grows everywhere on dry hills in France original: "Gallia". It flowers toward the end of summer. It brings its seed to completion at the beginning of autumn.

The Second Italian False Spignel by the Lyons History original: "Lugd." refers to Dalechamps; Italian False Spignel by Parkinson; the Second Italian False Kind by some, such as Johannes Bauhin, Lobelius, and the Lyons History.

It is of a hot and dry temperament, and it excels in the same powers as all the narrow-leaved Burnet-saxifrages original: "Pimpinella Saxifraga".

Pignut original: "Bulbocastanum". This is a plant with giant-fennel-like leaves, also endowed with smaller and shorter striated seeds; it is very easy to distinguish from the others of its class because it is the only Umbellifer having a tuberous root consisting of bulb-shaped nodules. It produces these in the likeness of a truffle—black or brown on the outside, white within, tender, and with a quite pleasant and sweet taste. It is eaten both raw and cooked, like the fruit of the chestnut tree, called "marrons" original: "marones".

It grows among crops, and in dry mountainous, clay-heavy, neglected places. Around Paris and London, the Pignut is quite common. It flowers and completes its seeding toward the end of summer.

It is most often called "Bulbocastanum" literally "Bulb-chestnut" by authors. It is the Bunium original Greek: Βούνιον of Gesner and Dioscorides. It is the "Earth-nut of the Northerners" by Lobelius. Commonly called "Pancaseolus" Bread-and-cheese by the Italians, according to Caesalpinus—a name fashioned from "pane" (bread) and "caseo" (cheese), whose place it takes in meals when the tuberous root is dug from the earth, whether raw or cooked. The Pignut found its name from the shape of a bulb and the scent of a chestnut.