SALAD HERBS. 59 



The Dandelion (from dens leonis, lion's tooth, in reference to the 

 leaf) was called Caput monachi or " prestis croune " in the fourteenth 

 century. Linnaeus named it Leontodon Taraxacum. As it is widely 

 spread over north and south temperate regions, it was probably, with 

 endive, one of the " bitter herbs " of Scripture. A very small and 

 starved variety grows on the rocks and walls of Valetta in Malta. 



LETTUCE. 



Several plants were included under the name Lactuca by the 

 Romans, and the Greeks distinguished several kinds of thridax and 

 thridakine, as they called the lettuce; though the Latin name appears 

 to be derived from the Greek word galaktouchos, "having milk." 

 This is the characteristic feature of the section of Composites known 

 as Cichoriaceae, to which the dandelion, lettuce, chicory, &c., belong. 

 The ancients recognized several varieties in colour black, brown, 

 white, purple, red and blood-red but whether they all belonged to 

 our garden lettuce is doubtful. This is believed to have been derived 

 from the species L. Scariola, L., a rare British plant, but widely 

 distributed over Europe, and Siberia, to the Himalayas. 



Pliny refers to the " crisped " and a " squat " variety, probably 

 like our cabbage lettuce. These were known as crispa and capitata 

 in the sixteenth century, and have been grown ever since. " Lettuces 

 contain but little nutriment of any kind except mineral salts, especially 

 nitre. ... A small quantity of sleep-producing substance, called 

 lactucarin, is found in the stem." (Church.) 



MUSTARD. 



We have two species of mustard, the white (Brassica alba, Boiss.), 

 with yellow seeds, and the black, with brown ones (B. nigra, Koch), 

 both being indigenous. To these Pliny adds a third, probably 

 B. eruco'ides, L., the " rocket-leaved " mustard. He thus describes 

 mustard : ' ' It has so pungent a flavour that it burns like fire, though at 

 the same time it is remarkably wholesome for the body, the leaves 

 being boiled as those of other vegetables." The reader will recall the 

 references to mustard in the Gospels. With regard to these Dr. W. M. 

 Thomson, in his book, The Land and the Book, observes: "I have 

 seen this plant on the rich plain of Akk&r as tall as the horse and his 

 rider." The black mustard grows in the hedges, &c., near St. Ives, 

 Cornwall, quite five feet in height. 



The only culinary use in the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteentn 

 (to 1730, Tournefort) centuries was as " sauce " with vinegar to " help 

 digestion." In the fourteenth century it was known as " Senevy," 

 probably a corruption of Sinapis, the old Latin name. In a recipe for 

 the palsy we read: " Take barly-bred and no outher, and ete potage 

 that is made of Seneuye, that ys an herbe that men maketh mostard 

 ther-of, ..." 



Mixed with vinegar it was used as a mustard pJ ast-er by the ancients 

 for the stings of serpents and scorpions. " The pungent essential oil 



