74 FAMILIAR WILD FLOWERS. 



and, combining our knowledge and our assumption, we may 

 affirm that the first three words are equivalent in meaning 

 to wood pea. We have not, however, got half-way through 

 the Cymric name yet, but for obvious reasons we now change 

 the subject. 



In Ireland the tuberous pea is the "carmel." The 

 old Gaelic name for our plant is the ' ' caermeal," and we 

 find it still in the North called the corr, the carmylie, the 

 cairmeil, or the cormeille ; the similarity of these names to 

 the Irish appellation is obvious and striking. The tuberous 

 pea is often called the wood pea or the heath pea, and we 

 shall throughout the rest of our remarks use any one of 

 these terms indiscriminately., as the more distinctive term, 

 tuberous, is somewhat long and cumbersome. 



The wood pea may be searched for in copses and open 

 spaces in woods or under sheltering hedgerows during May, 

 June, and July. The root-stock is perennial, and consists 

 largely of many small black tubers and a few fibres ; these 

 tubers are edible. " The nuts of this pease being boyled 

 and eaten are hardlier digested than be either turnips or 

 parsneps, yet do they nourish no less than the parsnep ;" 

 but one good parsnip, as far as bulk is concerned, would 

 cut up into a hundred or more of these tubers of the wood 

 pea, so that ordinarily they can surely scarcely have paid for 

 the trouble of digging up. Bryant, in his " Flora Dietetica," 

 writes as follows of the tuberous pea : " The roots of this, 

 when boiled, are said to be nutritious. They are held in 

 great esteem by the Scotch Highlanders, who chew them as 

 we do tobacco, and thus often make a meal of them ; for 

 being of a sedative nature, they pall the appetite and allay 

 the sensation of hunger." This caermiel, as the Highlanders 

 call it, is supposed to be the " chara " referred to by Caesar 



