OF THE PICKING AND DRYING OF HERBS 203 



be powdered and put into airtight tins, or preferably, in 

 well-corked bottles. If in the latter they should be kept 

 in the dark. There is no comparison between the flavour 

 of herbs kept in bags and those in bottles, for the former 

 naturally lose more than half their goodness. One of the 

 easiest ways of drying herbs if you have no proper drying- 

 shed is to spread them, in thin layers in a cool oven. No 

 writer has put more concisely the directions for picking 

 herbs than old Sir John Hill. " When the whole plant dies 

 the root is seldom of any value, but when the root remains 

 many years, sends up many shoots in the Spring, it commonly 

 has great virtue. There is very little to be expected in 

 the roots of annual plants : their seeds for the most part 

 contain their greatest virtue. In others the root lives 

 through the Winter, and there arise from it large leaves in 

 the Spring before the stalk appears. These are to be dis- 

 tinguished from those which afterwards grow on the Stalk, 

 for they are more juicy, and for many Purposes much better. 

 When the leaves of any Plant are said to be the part fittest 

 for use they are not to be taken from the stalk, but these 

 large ones growing from the roots are to be chosen, and these 

 when there is no stalk if that can be, for then only are they 

 fullest of juice and have their compleat virtue; the stalk 

 running away with the nourishment from them. This is 

 so much done in some plants that although the Leaves 

 growing from Root were very vigorous before the stalk grew 

 up they die and wither as it rises. Nature in the whole 

 growth of plants tends to the production of their flowers 

 and seed, but when they are ripe the rest begins to decay, 

 having done its Duty, so that the time when the entire Plant 

 is in its most full Perfection is when it is in the Bud when the 

 Heads are formed for flowering, but not a single Flower 

 has yet disclosed itself. The tops of the plant are always 

 preferable to the whole Plant for immediate use. The time 

 of the Day must be when the morning Dew is dried away. 

 This is a very material circumstance, for if they be cut wet 

 with the Dew, Herbs will not dry well, and if they be cut 

 at Noon Day, when the sun has made the Leaves flag, they 



