Anthriscus cerefolium.

Botanical name: 

Anthriscus cerefolium Hoffm. Umbelliferae. Chervil.

Europe, Orient and north Asia. This is an old fashioned pot-herb, an annual, which appears in garden catalogs. Chervil is said to be a native of Europe and was cultivated in England by Gerarde in 1597. Parkinson says "it is sown in gardens to serve as salad herb." Pliny mentions its use by the Syrians, who cultivated it as a food, and ate it both boiled and raw. Booth says the French and Dutch have scarcely a soup or a salad in which chervil does not form a part and as a seasoner is by many preferred to parsley. It seems still to find occasional use in England, Chervil was cultivated in Brazil in 1647 but there are no references to its early use in America. The earlier writers on American gardening mention it, however, from McMahon in 1806. The leaves, when young, are the parts used to impart a warm, aromatic flavor to soups, stews and salads. Gerarde speaks of the roots as being edible. There are curled-leaved varieties


Sturtevant's Edible Plants of the World, 1919, was edited by U. P. Hedrick.