[2648] “Stag’s food.” Fée adopts the opinion of Sprengel and Sibthorpe, that this is the Pastinaca sativa of Linnæus, the cultivated parsnip. Desfontaines identifies it with the Sium sisarum; but, as Fée says, that plant is but rarely found in Greece.
[2649] See B. xx. c. [18]. For the olusatrum, see B. xx. c. [46].
[2650] The parsnip is no longer employed for its medicinal properties; but for a long time, the seed was looked upon as a diuretic and febrifuge. The root contains a considerable quantity of saccharine matter.
[2651] Sprengel identifies it with the Chærophyllum sativum of Linnæus, the scandix cerifolium, our common chervil; but Fée considers it to be the same as the Scandix pecten Veneris of Linnæus, the Venus’ comb chervil. Pliny has mentioned a “scandix” also in B. xxi. c. 52, but erroneously, Fée thinks.
[2652] It is not used for any medicinal purposes at the present day.
[2653] Acharn. A. ii. sc. 4: “Get some scandix from your mother, and give it me.” The same joke also appears in the “Equites;” and A. Gellius, B. xv. c. 20, says that Theopompus speaks of the mother of Euripides as having been a greengrocer.
[2654] Fée identifies it with the Anthriscus odoratus of Linnæus, the cultivated chervil. See B. xxi. c. [52].
[2657] This is the Caucalis grandiflora of Linnæus, Fée thinks.