[Sca-cooks] Re: samphire

[ranvaig at columbus.rr.com]

>         For some reason I thought that this plant was extinct.  Perhaps I am
>mixing it up with the Roman seasoning plant (silphium?)

 From the Florilegium (where else?):
silphium was a more or less unidentified (at least to us) plant 
resin which appears to have gone extinct or otherwise unavailable 
between the lifetime of Marcus Gavinus Apicius, and the time at which 
the earliest Apicius manuscript (7th century?) is dated. Laser 
appears to be the more readily available substitute for silphium, and 
is believed to be asafeotida gum,presumably ground to a powder.
http://www.florilegium.org/files/PLANTS/spices-msg.html