32 THE WILD-FLOWERS OF SELBORNE 



used now, and it certainly forms an excellent sub- 

 stitute for spinach. 



In Lincolnshire, Good King Henry or All-good 

 (C. Bonus-Henricus, L.), is still cultivated as a pot- 

 herb, and in former times was much used. The origin 

 of the name " Good King Henry " is unknown, but, 

 says Dr. Prior, " it has nothing to do with our Henry 

 VIII. and his sore legs." From its general habit and 

 appearance the plant is called " wild spinach " in the 

 Isle of Wight, where it may often be met with in waste 

 places and by roadsides. In other districts it is known 

 as " mercury," but the true mercury is Mercurialis 

 annua, a plant not infrequently met with as a weed in 

 gardens, and which is very abundant about Winchester. 

 This plant was among the most famous of the ancient 

 pot-herbs. Dr. Turner, in his black-letter herbal, 

 pubhshed at Cologne in 1568, gives two excellent 

 woodcuts of the plant, and after a description of its 

 parts, goes on to say : " By thys description it is 

 playn that our forefathers have erred in England 

 which hitherto in the most parte of all England have 

 used another herbe in the stede of the ryghte mercury. 

 Therefore as many as had leuer ete whete than acornes, 

 let them use no more theyr old mercury, but thys 

 mercury (^M. an7iud) whych Dioscorides describeth. 

 The ryght mercury groweth comon in the fields and 

 wynyardes of Germany without any settyng or sowyng. 

 And it beginneth now to be knowen in London, and in 

 gentle mennis places not far from London. I neuer 

 saw it grow more plenteously in all my lyfe than about 

 Wormes in Germany." The plant used by our fore- 

 fathers "in the stede of the ryghte mercury" was 

 doubtless the " Good King Henry " referred to above, 

 and which is often called by old writers " English 



