It is spoken of in the Odyssey under the name of selinon, and in Theophrastus; but later, Dioscorides and Pliny[365] distinguish between the wild and cultivated celery. In the latter the leaves are blanched, which greatly diminishes their bitterness. The long course of cultivation explains the numerous garden varieties. The one which differs more widely from the wild plant is that of which the fleshy root is eaten cooked.
Chervil—Scandix cerefolium, Linnæus; Anthriscus cerefolium, Hoffmann.
Not long ago the origin of this little Umbellifer, so common in our gardens, was unknown. Like many annuals, it sprang up on rubbish-heaps, in hedges, in waste places, and it was doubted whether it should be considered wild. In the west and south of Europe it seems to have been introduced, and more or less naturalized; but in the south-east of Russia and in western temperate Asia it appears to be indigenous. Steven[366] tells us that it is found “here and there in the woods of the Crimea.” Boissier[367] received several specimens from the provinces to the south of the Caucasus, from Turcomania and the mountains of the north of Persia, localities of which the species is probably a native. It is wanting in the floras of India and the east of Asia.
Greek authors do not mention it. The first mention of the plant by ancient writers occurs in Columella and Pliny,[368] that is, at the beginning of the Christian era. It was then cultivated. Pliny calls it cerefolium. The species was probably introduced into the Greco-Roman world after the time of Theophrastus, that is in the course of the three centuries which preceded our era.
Parsley—Petroselinum sativum, Mœnch.
This biennial Umbellifer is wild in the south of Europe, from Spain to Turkey. It has also been found at Tlemcen in Algeria, and in Lebanon.[369]
Dioscorides and Pliny speak of it under the names of Petroselinon and Petroselinum,[370] but only as a wild medicinal plant. Nothing proves that it was cultivated in their time. In the Middle Ages Charlemagne counted it among the plants which he ordered to be cultivated in his gardens.[371] Olivier de Serres in the sixteenth century cultivated parsley. English gardeners received it in 1548.[372] Although this cultivation is neither ancient nor important, it has already developed two varieties, which would be called species if they were found wild; the parsley with crinkled leaves, and that of which the fleshy root is edible.
Smyrnium, or Alexanders—Smyrnium olus-atrum, Linnæus.
Of all the Umbellifers used as vegetables, this was one of the commonest in gardens for nearly fifteen centuries, and it is now abandoned. “We can trace its beginning and end. Theophrastus spoke of it as a medicinal plant under the name of Ipposelinon, but three centuries later Dioscorides[373] says that either the root or the leaves might be eaten, which implies cultivation. The Latins called it olus-atrum, Charlemagne olisatum, and commanded it to be sown in his farms.[374] The Italians made great use of it under the name macerone.[375] At the end of the eighteenth century the tradition existed in England that this plant had been formerly cultivated; later English and French horticulturists do not mention it.[376]
The Smyrnium olus-atrum is wild throughout Southern Europe, in Algeria, Syria, and Asia Minor.[377]