ached during their time of cultivation.

Dr. Pereira says the digestibility of Celery is increased by its
maceration in vinegar. As taken at table, Celery possesses certain
qualities which tend to soothe nervous irritability, and to relieve
sick headaches. "This herb Celery [Sellery] is for its high and
grateful taste," says John Evelyn, in his _Acetaria_, "ever placed
in the middle of the grand sallet at our great men's tables, and our
Praetor's feasts, as the grace of the whole board." It contains some
sugar and a volatile odorous principle, which in the wild plant
smells and tastes strongly and disagreeably. The characteristic
odour and flavour of the cultivated plant are due to this essential
oil, which has now become of modified strength and qualities; also
when freshly cut it affords albumen, starch, mucilage, and mineral
matter. Why Celery accompanies cheese at the end of dinner it is
not easy to see. This is as much a puzzle as why sucking pig and
prune sauce should be taken in combination,--of which delicacies
James Bloomfield Rush, the Norwich murderer, desired that plenty
should be served for his supper the night before he was hanged, on
April 20th, 1849.

CENTAURY.

Of all the bitter appetising herbs which grow in our fields and
hedgerows, and which serve as excellent simple tonics, the
Centaury, particularly its white flowered variety, belonging to the
Gentian order of [97] plants, is the most efficacious. It shares in an
abundant measure the restorative antiseptic virtues of the Field
Gentian and the Buckbean. There are four wild varieties of the
Centaury, square stemmed, and each bearing flat tufts of flowers
which are more or less rose coloured. The ancients named this
bitter plant the Gall of the Earth, and it is now known as Christ's
Ladder, or Felwort.

Though growing commonly in dry pastures, in woods, and on
chalky cliffs, yet the Centaury cannot be reared in a garden. Of old
its tribe was called "Chironia," after Chiron, the Greek Centaur,
well skilled in herbal physic; and most probably the name of our
English plant was thus originated. But the Germans call the Centaury
_Tausendgulden kraut_--"the herb of a thousand florins,"--either
because of its medicinal value, or as a corruption of _Centum
aureum_, "a hundred golden sovereigns." Centaury has become
popularly reduced in Worcestershire to Centre of the Sun.
Its generic adjective "erythroea" signifies red. The flowers
open only in fin