214 IN NATURE'S WAYS 



cuckoo-pint, and explain the story of its many curious 

 features ! 



Plants known by many different names usually are 

 firm favourites, and the cuckoo-pint's names are 

 legion. It was called Adam-and-Eve in olden days, 

 sometimes Bulls - and - Cows, Parson - in - the - Pulpit, 

 Wake-Robin, Adder's Meat, Arrowroot, and Portland- 

 starch root these last names going back to the days 

 when a kind of arrowroot was made on the Isle of 

 Portland from the starch of the plant's stem. But no 

 name seems to suggest what naturalists have observed, 

 that the pungent root is scratched out and eaten by 

 some of the birds, who have discovered that it is 

 pleasant, or perhaps an aid to good digestion. 



The cuckoo-pint tribe of plants is noted for its 

 poisonous properties, and some kinds are cultivated in 

 tropical countries for the sake of their roots. Our 

 British cuckoo -pint has so acrid a juice in its roots 

 that a single drop of it will produce a burning feeling 

 in the mouth ; but is wholesome enough if properly 

 prepared, as it was of old by herbal doctors. 



The leaves are beautiful, and always a welcome 

 sight when they appear in the early days of the year, 

 telling of better days to come. They emerge from the 

 ground neatly furled up one within another, pointed 

 tongues of green, gradually uncurling and separating, 

 and growing rapidly, so that in mid-February they have 

 reached their full size, and make welcome splashes of 

 green in the hedges, and in the woods where the 

 celandines are opening, to add the glint of gold to the 

 green woodland carpet. Most of the young leaves are 

 green all over, but some are found spotted curiously 

 with small black marks, and later on others are found 

 blotched over as if someone had spilt upon them great 

 drops of purple ink. They are burning to the taste ; 



