i2 4 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



still part of the staple diet of some of the eastern countri«s, particularly Persia, 

 Syria and Turkey. 1 The plant is cultivated for the purpose, though it is a common 

 wild plant, being very abundant in the moist meadows of some parts of England. 

 Salep is said to be very nutritious, and is a tough, horny substance prepared by 

 heating the orchis root and drying it in the air. Another wild food that might 

 be worth exploiting is the "pignut" or " earthnut," the swollen underground part 

 of Conopodium denudatum, which is exceedingly abundant in many places.' It 

 has long been used in the Low Countries, though less now than formerly, being 

 treated like parsnips and carrots. Their flavour is said to resemble chestnuts, 

 and at times they have been a regular market article in Sweden. 3 



Some wild plants are more or less palatable if used as vegetables, but they are 

 almost entirely neglected in favour of the cultivated types. Local use is made 

 of the young flowering stems of the spiked Star of Bethlehem (Ornithogalum 

 pyrenaicum), which is plentiful in parts of the West Country, and used to be 

 marketed under the names of French or Bath Asparagus. 4 Nettle-tops are often 

 used by country people in the early spring, as they are credited with some 

 medicinal value if cooked like asparagus. The roots of chicory, dandelion and 

 silverweed (Potentilla anserina), and the leaves of sorrel and dandelion are the 

 most common parts of wild plants that are used as vegetables, either cooked 

 or uncooked. An interesting list of wild plants was recommended during the war 

 by the Austrian authorities in Vienna for use as vegetables : 



(a) For use as spinach or cabbage : nettle, plantain, giant fennel, wild garlic 

 and plants of the primrose family. These can all be used alone or 

 mixed with other vegetables. 

 , (b) Salad substitutes : chicory, dandelion, sorrel and wild hops. 



(c) For flavouring soup ; violets, giant fennel, ground-ivy. 



The universal shortage of oils and fats has stimulated the collection and use 

 of various wild products that can be used as sources of oil, especially in Central 

 Europe. Beech-nuts are credited with yielding an excellent food-oil, and Germany 

 made efforts to secure the beech-nut harvests from neutral countries in order 

 to augment her oil supplies. Hazel-nuts, walnuts and pine kernels also contain 

 much oil. The German hazel harvest in 1916 was the largest since 1882, and high 

 prices were paid for the nuts for the purpose of oil extraction. Pine-cones have 

 been broken up and the kernels separated by a light form of threshing, but where 

 facilities exist it is possible to release the kernels by drying the cones in kilns. 

 Long before the war it was the custom for the children of the Black Forest 

 (Germany) to collect elder-berries and take them to the little village mills for the 

 oil to be expressed. Edible oil can also be obtained from horse-chestnuts, but, 

 as the oil is very firmly held in the tissues of the seeds, the extraction is a matter 

 of some difficulty, and even then only about 2-2*5 P er cent, of oil is obtained. 

 One of the best oils is obtained from the common red poppy {Papaver rhceas) ■ 

 it is particularly sweet and wholesome, and has been used as a substitute for 

 olive-oil. 5 The cultivation of poppies is encouraged in Austria, as they yield 

 a greater harvest than any other variety of oil-seed. Oil is expressed from various 



1 Wilson, ibid. 



1 Crichton Browne, J., "A Neglected Source of Food Supply," Selborne 

 Magazine, vol. xxviii. No. 332, 85-7, 1917. 

 3 Hogg and Johnson, ibid. 



* Lindley, J., and Moore, T., Treasury of Botany, 1889. 

 5 Hogg and Johnson, ibid. 



