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KITCHEN VEGETABLES.
Perhaps the wonder may cease, that it is so difficult torecognise those plants used by the moderns, among theworks of the ancients, when it is considered that they allbelong to one natural order, to discover the species exer-cises the skill of the most learned botanists. All the um-belliferous plants so nearly resemble each other in generalappearance, that they may be readily confouuded. Thisdifficulty appears to have been increased by the old physi-cians, who used a great many plants of this kind, whichthey named after kitchen vegetables, and which they re-sembled in general appearance. So that from these causes,plants totally different in nature, are often found to occurunder one name. To distinguish these correctly, it is foundnecessary to compare them with kitchen vegetables, andalso among those used in medicine.
It is a well ascertained fact, that numerous kitchen vege-tables, as well as many spices, were at first used only formedicinal virtues, but from these applications they werefound to have agreeable tastes, whence they were cultivatedfor food, or to season dishes: of this kind, the scorzonerafirst became known in Spain about the middle of the six-teenth century, where it was originally used as an antidote tothe poisonous bite of some snakes, which had wounded somepeasants whilst mowing: this species of snake is called therescurzo.
A Moor had learnt its property in Africa , and he curedthose persons so bitten with the juice of the leaves and theroots, but he was desirous to conceal the secret to himself.Some persons, however, followed him to the mountains,where he collected it, and discovered the nature of theplant; whence it was called scurzonera, or scorzonera His-panica, and so named from the snake. It appears, that theperson who first made it known was Petrus Cannizer, whotransmitted it to John Odorich Melchior, physician to theQueen of Bohemia, with a drawing of it and a natural spe-cimen: the latter sent w hat he had thus obtained to Mat-thioli, who, at that time, was unacquainted with it. Soonafter, the roots were extolled in a particular tract written byNicholas Monardes , 11 as a powerful remedy against the biteof snakes.
Probability is much in favour of the presumption thfttthese roots were first used in Spain for food; (hat at aboutthe commencement of the sixteenth century they were intro-