Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 9.djvu/86

 76 F E N F E N interpolated to link the fragments. 1 It is a rude example of what Macpherson did so well 200 years after. The first part appears to be a fragment of a version of the Seiryliyi Conculaind, or Sick Bed of Cuchulaind, into which are introduced references to the Fians; then follows a frag ment concerning the death of Conlaech son of Cuchulaind ; this is followed by a fragment about the battle of Cmica, in which Cumuli, son of Trenmor and father of Find, was slain by Coll sou of Morn. Bibliography. Keating s History of Ireland, John O ilahony s translation, New York, 1857 ; O Curry s Lectures on the MS. Materials of Irish History, and on the Manners and Customs of the Ancient Irish, and his Battle of Mayh Leana, published by the Celtic Society; the Dean of L is more s Book; J. F. Campbell of Islay s Lcabhar na Fcinne, and his Popular Tales of the West Highlands; Transactions of the Oasianiac Society. See also Biblio graphy of CELTIC LITERATURE, vol. v. p. 327. (W. K. S.) FENNEL (Foeniculum), a genus of umbelliferous plants, having umbels compound, and without involucres : petals yellow, entire, roundish, and incurved at the tip ; and fruit a laterally compressed cremocarp, with achene 5-ridged, a large, single vitta under each furrow, and albumen plano convex. (See BOTANY, vol. iv. p. 150, fig. 292; and p. 151, fig. 209.) Common Fennel, F. vulgare, Gartn. (Anethum Foeniculum, L.), to which the other forms of fennel are generally referred, is a perennial from 2 to 3 or, when cultivated, 4 feet in height, having leaves three or four times pinnate, with numerous linear or awl-shaped segments, and umbels glaucous, and of about 15 or 20 rays. The plant appears to be of South European origin, but is now met with in various parts of Britain and the rest of temperate Europe, and in the west of Asia. The fruits have an aromatic taste and odour, and are used for the pre paration of oil of fennel and fennel water, valued for their stimulant and carminative properties. The fruits and edible shoots of fennel were eaten by the ancient Romans. The fennel seeds of commerce are of several sorts. Sweet or Roman Fennel seeds are the produce of a tall perennial plant, with umbels of 25-30 rays, which is cultivated near Nismes in the south of France ; they are elliptical and arched in form, about inch long and a quarter as broad, and are smooth externally, and of a colour approaching a pale green. Shorter and straighter fruits are obtained from the annual variety of F. vulyare known as F. Panmorium (Panmuhuri) or Indian Fennel, and are employed in India in curries, and for medicinal purposes. Other kinds are the German or Saxon fruits, brownish-green in colour, and between and ^ inch in length, and the broader but smaller fruits of the Wild or Bitter Fennel of the south of France. A variety of fennel, F. dulce, having the Btem compressed at the base, and the umbel 6-8 rayed, is grown in kitchen-gardens for the sake of its leaves. Giant Fennel is the name applied to the plant Ferula communis, common in Sicily, where the pith of the stem is used as tinder. Hog s or Sow Fennel is the species Peucedanum officinale. FENTON, ELIJAH (1683-1730), an English poet, was born at Shelton near Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire, 20th May 1683. He entered Jesus College, Cambridge, with the view of studying for the church, but afterwards declined to take orders, and on leaving the university he accompanied the earl of Orrery to Flanders in the capacity of private secretary. On the return of the earl to Eng land in 1705, Fen ton became assistant in a school at Headley in Surrey, and was soon afterwards appointed master of the free grammar-school at Sevenoaks in Kent. In 1710 he was induced by the promise of a political ap pointment from Lord Bolingbroke to resign his mastership, but a change in the Government led to the disappointment 1 The Dean of Lismore s Book, ed. by Rev. T. M Lauchlan and TV. F. Skene, Edinburgh, 1862, p. 88 (translation), 64 (text). of his hopes. He was, however, not long afterwards appointed tutor to Lord Broghill, only son of the earl of Orrery; and when this engagement expired, he was, on the recommendation of Pope, employed to give private literary instructions to Mr Craggs, secretary of state. His next engagement was with Pope himself, whom he assisted in translating the Odyssey. The first, fourth, nineteenth, and twentieth books are ascribed to Fenton. In 1717 he published a volume of Miscellaneous Poems, and in 1723 his tragedy of Marianne was brought out, and was performed with such success that the author s profits are said to have amounted to nearly a thousand pounds. The poetical merit of this tragedy is considerable; but the diction is too figurative and ornate for a dramatic composition, and accordingly it has not retained its place on the stage. In 1727 Fenton superintended a new edition of Milton s Poems, to which he prefixed a life, and in 1729 he pub lished a splendid edition of Waller, with notes. During the latter part of his life he was employed by Lady Trumbull, first as tutor to her son, and afterwards as auditor of her accounts. He died at East Hampstead, Berkshire, on the 13th of July 1730, and was interred in the parish church, where his tomb has inscribed on it an epitaph written by Pope. See Johnson s Lives of the Poets; Boyle s edition of Pope; and The Gentleman s Magazine, Ixi., Ixiv. FENTON, SIB GEOFFREY, a writer and statesman during the reigns of Elizabeth and James I., the brother of Edward Fenton the navigator, who accompanied Sir Martin Frobisher in his expeditions, and was afterwards sent out independently to endeavour to discover a north-west passage. In the capacity of queen s counsellor Sir Geoffrey served for twenty-seven years in Ireland, where his conduct appears to have given great satisfaction to his royal mistress, not withstanding that he took every opportunity of impressing on her mind the strong conviction he entertained that the safety and glory of her government in that island de pended on her subjects enjoying the protection of equal laws. He died at Dublin, October 19, 1606. Fenton is best known for his translation of the History of the Wars of Italy by Guieciardini, which he dedicated to Elizabeth. Of his other translations the principal are Certain Tragical Dis courses written out of French and Latin, 1567, and Golden Epistles, containing a variety of Discourses, both Moral, Philosophical, and Divine, gathered as well out of the remainder of Guevara s icorks as other authors, Latin, French, and Italian, 1577. The Familiar Epistles of Guevara had been published in English by Edward Fullowes in 1574 ; Fenton s collection consists of pieces not con tained in that publication. FENUGREEK (Triyonella), a genus of leguminous herbs very similar in habit and in most of their characters to the species of the genus Medlcago. The leaves are formed of three obovate leaflets, the middle one of which is stalked ; the flowers are solitary or in clusters of two or three, and have a campanulate, 5-cleft calyx; and the pods are many- seeded, cylindrical or flattened, and straight or only slightly curved. The fenugreeks or trigonels are widely diffused over the south of Europe, West and Central Asia, and the north of Africa, and are represented also by several species in Australia. Common Fenugreek, T. Fvenum-grcecum, so called from the name given to it by the ancients, who used it as fodder for cattle, is indigenous to tbe Mediterranean region, and is cultivated to some extent in Thuringia, Moravia, and other parts of Europe, and in Morocco, and largely in Egypt and in India. It bears a sickle-shaped pod, containing from 10 to 20 seeds, from which 6 per cent, of a fetid, fatty, and bitter oil can be extracted by ether. In India the fresh plant is employed as an esculent. The seed is an ingredient in curry powders, and is used for flavouring cattle foods. It was formerly much esteemed as a medicine, and is still in repute in veterinary practice.