Lovage, in botany: A genus of the digynia order, belonging to the pentandra class of plants; and in the natural method ranking under the 45th order, Umbellata. The fruit is oblong, and quinque-folicated on each side; the florets are equal; the petals involuted or rolled inwards, and entire. There are seven species; of which the most remarkable are, the levisticum or common, and the scoticum or Scots, lovage. The first is a native of the Apennine mountains in Italy. It has a thick fleshy, deeply-penetrating perennial root, crowned by very large, many-parted, radical leaves, with broad lobes, having incisions at top, upright, strong, channelled stalks, branching six or seven feet high, and all the branches terminated by yellow flowers in large umbels. The second is a native of Scotland, and grows near the sea in various parts of the country. It has a thickish, fleshy, penetrating, perennial root, crowned by large doubly-trifoliated leaves, with broad, short, indented lobes, upright round stalks, half a yard high, terminated by small yellow umbels. Both species are hardy, and easily propagated by seeds sown in spring or autumn.

Medicinal uses, &c. The root of the first species agrees nearly in quality with that of angelica: the principal difference is, that the lovage root has a stronger smell, and a somewhat less pungent taste, being rather warmer than the root; but although certainly capable of being applied to useful purposes, this root is not regarded in the present practice. The leaves of the second are sometimes eaten raw as a salad, or boiled as greens, by the inhabitants of the Hebrides. The root is reckoned a good carminative. They give an infusion of the leaves in whey to their calves to purge them.