The Natural History of Pliny, Volume 4 (of 6)

Chapter 154: CHAP. 61.—THE JUICES AND FLAVOURS OF GARDEN HERBS.

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The text compiles practical and encyclopedic guidance on crop cultivation and plant uses, beginning with cereals and farm management — types of grain, sowing and harvesting schedules, ploughing, seed selection, storage, and maladies — plus weather and stellar prognostics for agricultural timing. It proceeds to flax and garden plants, detailing varieties, planting and processing methods, garden layout, and pest and disease remedies. The final section assembles medicinal preparations and numerous remedies derived from vegetables and herbs, listing applications and recipes for treating ailments using garden-grown plants.

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.