The aromatic fruit or seed of a plant of the genus Umbellefera. It is referred to in Scripture (Matt. xxxiii:23). As salt was a symbol of friendship, “shearers of salt and cummin” meant intimate friends. The seeds are linear and flat on one side and convex or striated on the other. Their odor and properties resemble the caraway, or anise seeds, and they are often called bastard anise. They are used in Germany in bread, in Holland they are frequently put into cheese. Norwegian anchovies in kegs are frequently flavored with them, and they are also used in making curry powder, as a carminative flavoring, and in veterinary medicines, etc. Caraway Seed The caraway plant has a branching stem 2 or 3 ft. high, with finely divided leaves and dense umbels of white or pinkish white flowers. The leaves are frequently used to flavor soup and the roots, which taper like a parsnip, and when young are boiled and eaten as a vegetable. The seeds are oblong, pointed at both ends, thickest in the middle, striated on the surface and of a crescent shape, they have an aromatic smell and warm, pungent taste. From the seeds is obtained a volatile oil called oil of caraway, of a pale yellow color which turns dark with age; it is frequently adulterated with oil of cumin. After the oil has been extracted the seeds are called “drawn caraways,” and by way of deception are often mixed with good caraway seeds. They can be told by their shrunken, dark appearance. The color of the English caraway seeds is a deep brown, those of Germany and Holland are larger and of a light blue-brown color, while those from Russia, Poland and Bohemia are small, of a blackish brown color, and mixed with a good deal of dirt. There is a variety of a light brown color, about twice the size of the English caraways, imported from Mogador. Caraway seeds and oil are used medicinally, as a flavoring by bakers and confectioners, in compounding various liquors, particularly that known as Kummel, and in making Scotch cavie, or caraway, comfits; for this purpose the seeds are coated with sugar and colored red, pink, blue, yellow, etc. Coriander. The word “coriander” is derived from the Greek word Koriannon, a bed-bug, referring to the disagreeable smell of the whole plant when fresh, but the ripe and perfectly dried fruit has an agreeable smell and a sweetish, aromatic taste. Its an annual or bi-annual plant, of the genus Umbelliferce, native of South Europe, with a branching stem 1 or 2 ft. high. The lower leaves bipennate, the upper ones being more compounded and divided into very narrow divisions. The fruit is globose, containing round slightly ribbed or ridged seeds, about as large as black pepper, very light, of a yellowish brown or straw color externally; inside the husk of each seed are two closely fitting hemispherical mericarps.