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ACETARIA.

AL LETS in general consist of certain Esculent Plantsand Herbs, improv’d by Culture, Industry and Art of theGardiner ; or, as others fay, they are a Composition ofEdule Plants and Roots of leveral kinds, to be eaten rawor green, blanch'd or candied, simple and per se, or in-termingl’d with others according to the Season. The boyl’d, bak’d,pickl’d, or otherwise difguis’d, variously accommodated by the skilfulCooks, to render them grateful to the more feminine Palate, or Herbsrather for the Pot, &c. challenge not the Name of Sallet so properlyhere, tho’ sometimes mention’d: And therefore,

Those who criticize not so nicely upon the Word, seem to distin-guish the a Olera (which were never eaten raw) from Acetaria , whichwere never boyl’d ; and so they derive the Etymology of Olus fromOlla, the Tot. But others deduce it from ^OA^l, comprehending theuniversal Genus of the Vegetable Kingdom, as from 17 oV Tanis ;esteeming, that he who had b Bread and Herbs was sufficiently bless’dwith all a frugal Man could need or desire. Others again will have itab olendo, i. e. crescendo , from its continual Growth and springing up iSo the younger Scaliger on Varro. But his Father Julius extends itnot so generally to all Plants, as to all the Esculents, according to theText: We call those Olera (fays c Theophrasus) which are commonlyeaten ; in which Senle it may be taken, to include both boy I'd and raw.Last of all, ab alendo, as having been the original and genuine Foodof all Mankind from the d Creation.

A great deal more of this learned Stuff were to be pick’d up fromthe Cnmini Seclores, and impertinently curious ; whilst as it concernsthe Business in hand, we are, by Sallet , to understand a particularComposition of certain crude and frelh Herbs, such as usually are, ormay solely be, eaten with Home'acetous Juice, Oyl, Salt, £tc. to givethem a grateful Gust and Vehicle ; exclusive of the e sjyjst r {syngas,eaten without their due Correctives, which the Learned { Salmasus ,and indeed generally the 6 old Thyscians affirm (and that truly) allcrude and raw \olyccva. require to render them wholsome; so as probablythey were from hente, as h T liny thinks, call’d Acetaria, and not (asHermo lasts and some others) Accept aria ab Accipiendo ; nor from Ac-cedere , tho’ so 1 ready at hand, and easily drels’d, requiring neither

- * * Olera a frigidis distinct. See Spartianus in Pesccnnio. Salmas. in Jul. Capitolin.d Panis erat primis virides mortalibus Herbæ ;

Quas tellus nullo sollicitante dabat.

Et modo carpebant vivaci cespite gramen;

Nitnc epnlæ tenera fronde cacumen erant. Ovid. Fasior. iv.

. c A Ace^yctva. ja t Ehcophrast. Plant. lib. vii. cap. y.

* Gen. i. 29. " e Plutarch. Sympos.

f Palmas, ih Solin. against Hicron. Mcrcurialis.

* Galen. 2. It. Aliment, cap. 1. Et Simp. Medic. Avcrrocs, lib. v. CoIIoc.

h Plin. lib. xix. cap. 4. * Convictus facilis sine aitemensa. Mart. Et>. 74-

6 A Fire,