It is doubtful whether the ancient Greeks and Romans knew this plant. The names _Sisaron_ of Dioscorides, _Siser_ of Columella and of Pliny,[74] are attributed to it. Certainly the modern Italian name _sisaro_ or _sisero_ seems to confirm this idea; but how could these authors have failed to notice that several roots descend from the base of the stem, whereas all the other umbels cultivated in Europe have but a single tap-root? It is just possible that the _siser_ of Columella, a cultivated plant, may have been the parsnip; but what Pliny says of the _siser_ does not apply to it. According to him it was a medicinal plant, _inter medica dicendum_.[75] He says that Tiberius caused a quantity to be brought every year from Germany, which proves, he adds, that it thrives in cold countries. If the Greeks had received the plant direct from Persia, Theophrastus would probably have known it. It came perhaps from Siberia into Russia, and thence into Germany, in which case the anecdote about Tiberius might well apply to the skirret. I cannot find any Russian name, certainly, but the Germans have original names, _Krizel_ or _Grizel_, _Görlein_ or _Gierlein_, which indicate an ancient cultivation, more than the ordinary name _Zuckerwurzel_, or sugar-root.[76] The Danish name has the same meaning—_sokerot_, whence the English _skirret_. The name _sisaron_ is not known in modern Greece; nor was it known there even in the Middle Ages, and the plant is not now cultivated in that country.[77] There are reasons for doubt as to the true sense of the words _sisaron_ and _siser_. Some botanists of the sixteenth century thought that _sisaron_ was perhaps the _parsnip_ proper, and Sprengel[78] supports this idea. The French names _chervis_ and _girole_[79] would perhaps teach us something if we knew their origin. Littré derives _chervis_ from the Spanish _chirivia_, but the latter is more likely derived from the French. Bauhin[80] mentions the low Latin names _servillum_, _chervillum_, or _servillam_, words which are not in Ducange’s dictionary. This may well be the origin of _chervis_, but whence came _servillum_ or _chervillum_? +Arracacha+ or +Arracacia+—_Arracacha esculenta_, de Candolle. An umbel generally cultivated in Venezuela, New Granada, and Ecuador as a nutritious plant. In the temperate regions of those countries it bears comparison with the potato, and even yields, we are assured, a lighter and more agreeable _fecula_. The lower part of the stem is swelled into a bulb, on which, when the plant thrives well, tubercles, or lateral bulbs, form themselves, and persist for several months, which are more prized than the central bulb, and serve for future planting.[81]