finochia

The Sweet fennel — Fœniculum dulce — comes from Syria and the Azores; this is probably the kind mentioned by French authors; it is cultivated in Italy as a salad herb, under the name of Finochia, and is sometimes grown in England; but it soon degenerates here into the common fennel, and the seed requires to be annually obtained from Italy; when blanched like celery it is very tender and crisp.

No celery with the appetizer array, finochia instead, the Greeks favor its flavor — definitely anise.