34 THE WILD-FLOWERS OF SELBORNE 



plenty near unto Harwich, at a place called Bandamar 

 lading." The writer knows of one spot in the Isle of 

 Wight where, among the loose sand of the sea-shore, 

 the plant has existed for a great number of years, but 

 perhaps it can hardly be considered as indigenous. 



Another plant in great repute as a vegetable, and 

 which may be found in a wild state at various stations 

 on the English coast, is the seakale — Crambe maritima. 

 This plant has only been cultivated as a vegetable for 

 a little over a century, though it appears to have been 

 used in its wild state for a longer period. It abounds 

 on the sandy shore by Calshot Castle, near the entrance 

 to Southampton Water, where, for a great number of 

 years, the fishermen have been accustomed to blanch 

 the young shoots by covering them with sand and 

 shingle, and afterwards to send them to Cowes or 

 Southampton for sale. To William Curtis, the author 

 of the Flora Londinensis , belongs the credit of bring- 

 ing seakale into general use as a vegetable. Towards 

 the end of the eighteenth century he made a con- 

 siderable plantation of it in his botanical garden at 

 Brompton. At first the experiment met with little 

 encouragement, and the first consignment was returned 

 from Covent Garden unsold. Curtis, however, perse- 

 vered ; he wrote a pamphlet on the culture of seakale, 

 and presented a packet of seed with each copy, and 

 thus he at length succeeded in bringing the new vege- 

 table into notice. It is said, and doubtless with some 

 truth, that the wild plant, blanched with sand on its 

 native shore, is superior in delicacy of flavour to the 

 cultivated vegetable. 



In his tour of Europe, undertaken in the year 

 1663, John Ray observes that "The Italians use 

 several herbs for sallets which are not yet or have 



