The chief interest attached to Coriander is that in the Book of Numbers, xi. 7, Manna is compared to the seed. It was originally introduced from the East, but is now naturalised in Essex and other places, where it has long been cultivated for druggists and confectioners. The seeds are quite round, like tiny balls, and Hogg remarks that they become fragrant by drying, and the longer they are kept the more fragrant they become. “If taken oute of measure it doth trouble a manne’s witt, with great jeopardye of madnes.”[19] Nowadays one comes across them oftenest in little round pink and white comfits for children.
Cummin good for eyes, The roses reigning the pride of May, Sharp isope good for greene woundes remedies.[20]
Cumin is also mentioned in the Bible by Isaiah; and also in the New Testament, as one of the plants that were tithed. It is very seldom met with, but the seeds have the same properties as caraway seeds. Gerarde says it has “little jagged leaves, very finely cut into small parcels,” and “spoky tufts” of red or purplish flowers. “The root is slender, which perisheth when it hath ripened his seed,” and it delights in a hot soil. He recommends it to be boyled together with wine and barley meale “to the forme of a pultis” for a variety of ailments. In Germany the seeds are put into bread and they figure in folklore. De Gubernatis says it gave rise to a saying among the Greeks: “Le cumin symbolisait, chez les Grecs, ce qui est petit. Des avares, ils disaient, qu’ils auraient même partagé le cumin.”
Darting fish that on a summer morn Adown the crystal dykes of Camelot, Come slipping o’er their shadows on the sand.... Betwixt the cressy islets, white in flower.
To purl o’er matted cress and ribbed sand, Or dimple in the dark of rushy coves.
Valley lilies, whiter still Than Leda’s love and cresses from the rill.
Cresses that grow where no man may them see.
I linger round my shingly bars, I loiter round my cresses.
Cresses have great powers of fascination for the poets, and “the cress of the Herbalist is a noun of multitude,” says Dr Fernie. Of these now cultivated, St Barbara’s Cress (_Barbarea vulgaris_) has the most picturesque name, and is the least known. It was once grown for a winter salad, but American Cress (_Erysimum præcox_) is more recommended for winter and early spring. Indian Cress (_Tropæolum majus_), usually known as nasturtium, is seldom counted a herb, although it is included in some old gardening lists, for the sake of the pickle into which its unripe fruits were made. Abercrombie adds that the flowers and young leaves are used in salads, but this must be most rare in England; though, when once in Brittany, I remember that the _bonne_ used to ornament the salad on Sundays with an artistic decoration of scarlet and striped nasturtium flowers. Garden Cress (_Lepidium sativum_), the tiny kind, associated in one’s mind since nursery days with “mustard,” used to be known as _Passerage_, as it was believed to drive away madness. Dr Fernie continues, that the Greeks loved cress, and had a proverb, “Eat Cresses and get wit.” They were much prized by our poor people, when pepper was a luxury. “The Dutchmen[21] and others used to eate Cresses familiarly with their butter and breade, as also stewed or boyled, either alone or with other herbs, whereof they make a Hotch-Potch. We doe eate it mixed with Lettuce and Purslane, or sometimes with Tarragon or Rocket with oyle, vinegar, and a little salt, and in that manner it is very savoury.”
