THE ESSEX MARSHES 141 



call it sulphurwort." He found it "very plentifully on 

 the south side of a wood, belonging to Walton, at the 

 Naze in Essex, by the highway side." About a hun- 

 dred years later Ray noticed it " in the salt ditches 

 near Walton " ; and there it flourishes to-day, the most 

 distinguished plant of the Essex marshes. But sul- 

 phurwort was not the only plant that attracted the 

 notice of John Gerarde at " Landamar Lading." In 

 a meadow adjoining " a mill beyond a village called 

 Thorp, at a place called Bandamar Lading " — evidently 

 the same locality as the above — he found " in great 

 plentie " the wild asparagus or sperage, corrupted in 

 the language of the marshmen into " sparrow-grass." 

 The writer searched in vain last autumn for this ex- 

 ceedingly rare plant in the vicinity of " Bandamar 

 Lading " ; but it is interesting to know that it still 

 exists in the Essex marshes. Another handsome and 

 important plant seen by the great herbalist at Lander- 

 mere was the sea-holly or Eryngo. Ray thus refers to 

 it in his list of rare Essex plants, published in 1695 : 

 " This being a plant common enough on sandy shores 

 I should not have mentioned, but that Colchester is 

 noted for the first inventing and practising the candy- 

 ing or conditing of its roots, the manner whereof may 

 be seen in Gerarde's Herbal^ The extract from 

 Gerarde is too lengthy for quotation, but it is worthy 

 of notice that a considerable trade in candied Er3'ngo- 

 roots, as a remedy in pulmonary diseases, was at that 

 time carried on at Colchester. The chamberlain's ac- 

 counts for the borough in the early years of the seven- 

 teenth century contain frequent entries with regard to 

 the payment for " Eryngoes," which seem to have been 

 valued at about four shillings a pound. The trade 

 was continued until comparatively recent years, when 



