[ 1268 ]
SCANDIX Cerefolium,
Garden Chervil.
y > <S
PENTANDRIA Digynia.
G en. Char. Gen. involucrum none. Flowers radiant.
Petals notched. Fruit awl-shaped. Central flowers
often male.
Spec. Char. Seeds polished, a little swelling. Umbels
sessile, lateral.
Syn. Scandix Cerefolium. Linn, Sp. PL 368. With.
3 0 7 . Hull. 63. Jacq. FI. Austr. v. 4 . 4 7 . t. 390.
Cerefolium vulgare sativum. Ger. em. 1038.
T h is plant is in the same predicament with Avena strigosa,
t, 1266. Dr. Withering mentioned it in his work, from Dr.
Stokes’s having found it about Worcester. It appeared too
probably to have escaped from gardens, where it is sometimes
cultivated for sail ads and soups, to find a place in the Flora
Britannica. Mr. Wigg and Mr. Turner having observed it,
to all appearance wild, and in great plenty, on a bank near
Halegworth, Suffolk, in June 1803, and sent us the specimen
in the annexed plate; we have determined to publish it. Future
observers may decide whether it be truly indigenous or
not. The umbelliferous tribe are so often but casually inspected,
and many of them are so much alike, that this Scandix
may possibly have been overlooked for the Anthriscus,
t. 818, which grows in similar situations.
The root is annual. Herbage pale green, shining, delicate
and tender, with an aromatic sweetish flavour. Stem branched,
round, hollow, striated, a little hairy about the joints only.
Leaves spreading, bipinnate .and cut, with hairy stalks. Umbels
sessile, opposite to the leaves, of about 4 general rays,
the partial ones of about 10 or 12, all more or less woolly.
Partial involucrum of a few sharp lateral leaflets. Flowers
perfectly white. Fruit tapering, furrowed, smooth and polished
In France this plant often makes a principal ingredient in
sallads, and is of much more general use than with us.