Petroselinum the specific name of the Parsley, from which our English name is derived,
is of classic origin, and is said to have been assigned to it by Dioscorides.

The Ancients distinguished between two plants Selinon, one being
the Celery (apium graveolens) and called heleioselinon - i.e. 'Marsh selinon,' and the other
- our parsley - Oreoselinon, 'Mountain selinon'; or petroselinum, signifying 'Rock selinon.'
This last name in the Middle Ages became corrupted into Petrocilium
- this was anglicized into Petersylinge, Persele, Persely and finally Parsley.

There is an old superstition against transplanting parsley plants.
The herb is said to have been dedicated to Persephone and to funeral rites by the Greeks.
It was afterwards consecrated to St. Peter in his character of successor to Charon.

In the sixteenth century, Parsley was known as A. hortense, but herbalists retained
the official name petroselinum.
Linnaeus in 1764 named it A. petroselinum, but it is now assigned to the genus Carum.

The Greeks held Parsley in high esteem, crowning the victors with chaplets of Parsley
at the Isthmian games, and making with it wreaths for adorning the tombs of their dead.
The herb was never brought to table of old, being held sacred to oblivion and to the dead.
It was reputed to have sprung from the blood of a Greek hero, Archemorus, the forerunner
of death, and Homer relates that chariot horses were fed by warriors with the leaves.
Greek gardens were often bordered with Parsley and Rue.

Several cultivated varieties exist, the principal being; common plain-leaved, curled-leaved,
the Hamburg or broadleaved, and celery-leaved.

Of the variety crispum, or curled-leaved, there are no less than thirty-seven variations;
the most valuable are those of a compact habit with close, perfectly curled leaves.
The common sort bears close leaves, but is of a somewhat hardier nature
than those of which the leaves are curled; the latter are superior in every way.

The variety crispum was grown in very early days, being even mentioned by Pliny.

Turner says, 'if parsley is thrown into fishponds it will heal the sick fishes therein.'

The Hamburg, or turnip-rooted Parsley, is grown only for the sake
of its enlarged fleshy tap-root.
No mention appears to have been made by the Ancients, or in the Middle Ages,
of this variety, which Miller in his  Gardeners' Dictionary (1771) calls
'the largerooted Parsley,' and which under cultivation develops both
a parsnip-like a turnip-shaped form.
Miller says: 'This is now pretty commonly sold in the London markets,
the roots being six times as large as the common Parsley.
This sort was many years cultivated in Holland before the English gardeners
could be prevailed upon to sow it.
I brought the seeds of it from thence in 1727; but they refused to accept it,
so that I cultivated it several years before it was known in the markets.'
At the present day, the 'long white' and the 'round sugar' forms are sold
by seedgrowers and are in esteem for flavouring soups, stews, etc.,
the long variety being cooked and eaten like parsnips.

Neapolitan, or celery-leaved, parsley is grown for the use of its leafstalks,
which are blanched and eaten like those of celery.

The plain-leaved parsley was the first known in this country,
but it is not now much cultivated, the leaves being less attractive
than those of the curled, of a less brilliant green, and coarser in flavour.
It also has too close a resemblance to Fool's Parsley (anthriscus cynapium),
a noxious weed of a poisonous nature infesting gardens and fields.
The leaves of the latter, though similar, are of a rather darker green and when
bruised, emit an unpleasant odour, very different to that of Parsley.
They are, more finely divided.
When the two plants are in flower, they are easily distinguished, Anthriscus having
three tiny, narrow, sharp-pointed leaflets hanging down under each little umbellule
of the white umbel of flowers, whereas in the Garden Parsley there is usually only one
leaflet under the main umbel, the leaflets or bracts at the base of the small umbellules
only being short and as fine as hairs.
Anthriscus leaves, are glossy beneath.
Gerard called Anthriscus 'Dog's Parsley,' and says 'the whole plant is of a naughty smell.'
It contains a peculiar alkaloid called Cynapium.

Stone Parsley (Sison), or Breakstone, is an allied plant, growing in chalky districts.

S. Amomum is a species well known in some parts of Britain,
with cream-coloured flowers and aromatic seeds.
The name is said to be derived from the Celtic sium (running stream),
some of the species formerly included growing in moist localities.

Of our Garden Parsley (which he calls Parsele) Gerard says, 'It is delightful
to the taste and agreeable to the stomache,' also 'the roots or seeds boiled
in ale and drank, cast foorth strong venome or poyson; but
the seed is the strongest part of the herbe.'

Though the medicinal virtues of Parsley are still fully recognized, in former times it was
considered a remedy for more disorders than it is now used for.

Its imagined quality of destroying poison, to which Gerard refers, was probably attributed
to the plant from its remarkable power of overcoming strong scents, even the odour
of garlic being rendered almost imperceptible when mingled with that of Parsley.


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