Parsleys, Fennels, and Queen Anne"s Lace is the gardener"s introduction to the characteristics, cultivation, and history of one of the most distinctive families of the plant kingdom. These plants were well known to the Greeks and Romans — it was the juice of a member of the umbel family that Socrates was forced to drink — and the family was the first to be studied as such botanically, by Robert Morison in 1672. Yet even today the many herbs and ornamentals of this family are not as well known or appreciated as they should be. Parsleys, Fennels, and Queen Anne"s Lace is for anyone interested in herbs, whether for their culinary value or as ornamentals.