100 FAMILIAR WILD FLOWERS. 



bitter and pungent taste, that commends them as an 

 ingredient in a salad. People nowadays no longer 

 avail themselves of much which afforded welcome sus- 

 tenance to their forefathers, and many of the plants 

 contemptuously passed by, or burnt as useless cumberers of 

 the ground, would furnish wholesome food were it 

 not for the combined ignorance and prejudice that prevent 

 their use. We could imagine no book much more useful 

 than one giving simple illustrations of such plants and 

 hints as to the best way of utilising them ; but as no one 

 would buy it, we need pursue the idea no farther. 



The name land-cress is evidently bestowed on the plant 

 as a means of distinguishing it from the water-cress. Some 

 species of water-cress have yellow flowers, and strongly 

 resemble our present plant, but the form of the pods will 

 suffice in any case to distinguish them. Our ancestors 

 believed that the seed of the rocket would cure the bites 

 of the serpent, the scorpion, and the shrew-mouse. Per- 

 haps it would. 



