3rd. Throw some salt on the gourd after it has been boiled, and the water pressed out of it; put it into a saucepan, with a mixture of pepper, cummin seed, coriander, green mint, and the root of benzoin; add some vinegar; then chop some dates and almonds; a little later, more vinegar, honey, gravy, sun-made wine, and oil; sprinkle lightly with pepper, and serve.[IX-70] 4th. Put into a stewpan a fowl, with a gourd; add some apricots, truffles, pepper, cummin, sylphium, mint, parsley, coriander, pennyroyal, and calamint; moisten with wine, gravy, oil, vinegar, and honey.[IX-71] These four recipes are sufficient to prove that this vegetable stood very high in the estimation of the Romans. TURNIPS. The epicureans of Athens preferred turnips brought from Thebes;[IX-72] Roman gastronomists placed those of Amitermes in the first rank, and those of Nursia in the second. The kitchen-gardeners of Rome furnished them with a third variety, to which they had recourse when they could not procure any other.[IX-73] They were eaten boiled, thus:--after the water had been extracted from them, they were seasoned with cummin, rue, and benzoin, pounded in a mortar, adding to it afterwards honey, vinegar, gravy, boiled grapes, and a little oil. The whole was left to simmer, and then served.[IX-74] CARROTS. The Greeks and Romans planted or sowed them in the beginning of the spring, or autumn.[IX-75] They distinguished two kinds, the wild and the cultivated.[IX-76] This much esteemed root received the honour of being prepared in many ways. Sometimes it was eaten as a salad, with salt, oil, and vinegar.[IX-77] It was also stewed, and mixed afterwards with œnogarum.[IX-78] Again, they boiled it in a stewpan, over a slow fire, with some cummin and a little oil, and just before serving it was sprinkled with ground cummin seeds.[IX-79] BLIT (A SORT OF BEET). Blit is one of the family of _atriplices_, which grows in Europe, and in the temperate regions of Asia; it owes its ancient reputation entirely to the insipidity of its flavour, from which it derives its Greek name, synonymous with stupidity and insignificance.[IX-80] Blit was eaten boiled, when nothing better was to be had. In fact, it was a last resource--and nothing more. PURSLAINE. This vegetable, the aspect of which would lead us to suppose it possessed savoury qualities (though experience proves the contrary), was formerly mixed in different salads, and still enjoys some esteem when associated with a leg of mutton.[IX-81]