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.

1. See B. xv. c. 32.

2. "Absinthium." See B. xxvii. c. 28.

3. See B. xxv. c. 30.

4. Fée remarks, that though rarely to be met with, the salt flavour is still to be found in the vegetable kingdom.

5. The "cicercula," or Lathyrus sativus of Linnæus. See B. xviii. c. 32.