CHAP. 61.—THE JUICES AND FLAVOURS OF GARDEN HERBS.
This, too, reminds me that I ought to make some mention of the difference between the juices and flavours of the garden herbs, a difference which is more perceptible here than in the fruits even.[1252] In cunila, for instance, wild marjoram, cresses, and mustard, the flavour is acrid; in wormwood[1253] and centaury,[1254] bitter; in cucumbers, gourds, and lettuces, watery; and in parsley, anise, and fennel, pungent and odoriferous. The salt flavour is the only one that is not to be found[1255] in plants, with the sole exception, indeed, of the chicheling[1256] vetch, though even then it is to be found on the exterior surface only of the plant, in the form of a kind of dust which settles there.