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.[1] In cunila, for instance, wild marjoram, cresses,
and mustard, the flavour is acrid; in wormwood[2] and cen-
taury,[3] 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[4] in
plants, with the sole exception, indeed, of the chicheling[5]
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.