Levisticum officinale.

Levisticum officinale Koch. Umbelliferae. Lovage.

Europe. Lovage grows wild in the south of Europe and is cultivated in gardens. McMahon, 1806, includes it in his list of kitchen garden, aromatic, pot and sweet herbs, and in 1832 Bridgeman includes it among garden medicinal herbs. It is now used in eclectic medicine. At the present day, says Vilmorin, lovage is almost exclusively used in the manufacture of confectionery. Formerly the leafstalks and bottoms of the stems were eaten, blanched like celery. The whole plant has a strong, sweetish, aromatic odor and a warm, pungent taste and is probably grown now in America, as in 1806, rather as a medicinal than as a culinary herb. Lovage appears to have been known to Ruellius, 1536, who calls it Levisticum officinarum, and was seen in gardens by Chabraeus, 1677.

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