ummer to December or
even later. The plants will grow more or less in very cold, that is, not
actually freezing weather.

If sown in place, the rows should be the suggested 2 to 2-1/2 feet
apart, and the plants thinned several times until the required distance
is reached. Thinnings may be used for culinary purposes. For family use
half an ounce of seed, if fairly fresh, will produce an ample supply of
plants, and for several years, either from the established roots or by
reseeding. Unless seed is needed for household or sowing purposes, the
flower stems should be cut as soon as they appear.

_Uses._--Fennel is considered indispensable in French and Italian
cookery. The young plants and the tender leaves are often used for
garnishes and to add flavor to salads. They are also minced and added to
sauces usually served with puddings. The tender stems and the leaves are
employed in soups and fish sauces, though more frequently they are eaten
raw as a salad with or without dressing. The famous "Carosella" of
Naples consists of the stems cut when the plant is about to bloom.
These stems are considered a great delicacy served raw with the leaf
stalks still around them. Oil, vinegar and pepper are eaten with them.
By sowing at intervals of a week or 10 days Italian gardeners manage to
have a supply almost all the year.

The seeds are used in cookery, confectionery and for flavoring liquors.
Oil of fennel, a pale yellow liquid, with a sweetish aromatic odor and
flavor, is distilled with water. It is used in perfumery and for
scenting soaps. A pound of oil is the usual yield of 500 pounds of the
plant.

=Finocchio=, or =Florence fennel= (_F. dulce_, D. C.), deserves special
mention here. It appears to be a native of Italy, a distinct dwarf
annual, very thick-set herb. The stem joints are so close together and
their bases so swelled as to suggest malformation. Even when full grown
and producing seed, the plant rarely exceeds 2 feet. The large, finely
cut, light green leaves are borne on very broad, pale green or almost
whitish stalks, which overlap at their bases, somewhat like celery, but
much more swelled at edible maturity, to form a sort of head or
irregular ball, the "apple," as it is called, sometimes as large as a
man's fist. The seeds are a peculiar oblong, much broader than long,
convex on one side and flat on the other, with five conspicuous ribs.

Cultivation is much the same as for common fennel, though owing to th