426. CHAMPIGNON. Agaricus pratensis.--This plant is equal in flavour to
the mushroom when boiled or stewed: it is rather dry, and has little or
no scent whatever.
427. CHARDOONS. Cynara Cardunculus.--The gardeners blanch the stalks as
they do celery; and they are eaten raw with oil, pepper, and vinegar;
or, if fancy directs, they are also either boiled or stewed.
428. CHERVIL. Scandix Cerefolium.--This plant is so much used by the
French and Dutch, that there is scarcely a soup or salad but what
chervil makes part of it: it is grateful to the taste. See article
oenanthe crocata in the Poisonous Plants.
429. CIVES. Allium Schoenoprasum.--This is an excellent herb for salads
in the spring: it is also useful for soups, &c. &c. It is perennial, and
propagated by its roots, which readily part at any season.
430. CLARY. Salvia Sclarea.--The seeds are sown in autumn. It is
biennial. The recent leaves dipped in milk, and then fried in butter,
were formerly used as a dainty dish; but now it is mostly used as a
pot-herb, and for making an useful beverage called Clary Wine, viz.--Put
four pounds of sugar to five gallons of water, and the albumen of three
eggs well beaten; boil these together for about sixteen minutes, then
skim the liquor; and when it is cool, add of the leaves and blossoms two
gallons, and also of yeast half a pint; and when this is completed, put
it all together into a vessel and stir it two or three times a-day till
it has done fermenting, and then stop it close for two months:
afterwards draw it into a clean vessel, adding to it a quart of good
brandy.
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