CELERY, Apium, a genus of plants of the natural order umbellifertr, distinguished by n mere rudimentary calyx, roundish entire petals, very short styles, and roundish fruit. The common C. (A. grurcolens) is found wild in Britam and most parts of Europe, iu ditches, brooks, etc., especially near the sea and in saline soils. Its leaves are dark green and smooth, its petals involute at the tip. The wild plant, also called SMALLAGE, has a stem about 2 ft. high, a tapering slender root, a penetrating offensive odor, a bitterish acrid taste, and almost poisonous qualities. By cultivation, it is so much changed that its taste becomes agreeably sweetish and aromatic, whilst either the leaf stalks much increase in thickness, or the root swells in a turnip-like manner. These parts, blanched, are much used as a salad, or to impart flavor to soups, etc., and some times as a boiled vegetable. They contain sugar, mucilage, starch, and a substance resembling manna-sugar, which acts as a stimulant, particularly on the urino-genital organs, so that a very free and frequent indulgence in the use of C. cannot, in ordinary circumstances, be altogether favorable to health. Two principal varieties of C. are cul tivated, that most common in Britain having long thick leaf-stalks, which are more or less tubular, sometimes almost solid, and, after blanching, either white or more or less tinged with red; whilst the other, called TUILNID-ROOTED C., or CELERIAC, is chiefly
remarkable for its swollen turnip-like root, and is in most general cultivation on the continent of Europe. The " red " varieties of C. are esteemed rather more hardy than the "white." The blanching of the leaf-stalks is generally accomplished by drawing up earth to the plants, which are transplanted from the seed-bed into richly manured trenches; and as they grow, the trenches are filled up, and the earth finally raised into ridges, above which little more than the tops of the leaves appear. C. is thus obtained for use throughout the winter. In the northern parts of Britain, the seed is generally sown on a hot-bed. C. seed is often used for flavoring, when the leaf-stalks cannot be obtained.—Another species of C. (opium attstrale) grows abundantly in wet places on the shore about cape Horn and in Staten island. It is a large, hardy, and luxuriant plant, and is described as wholesome and very palatable, nearly equal in its wild state to our garden-celery. It seems well worthy of the attention of horticulturists.