130 Craigmillar and its Environs. 



"herb" have a certain poetic ring about them; and 

 the whole plant is remarkable for its aromatic flavour. 

 Though the Sweet Cicely is found in a few other 

 localities in the neighbourhood of the city, generally 

 near old dwellings or ruinous places, another Craig- 

 millar plant is somewhat rare in our native flora, and 

 is found nowhere else in the Edinburgh district. This 

 is the plant known, curiously enough, as Alexanders 

 (Smyrniuin olusatrum), the young shoots of which were 

 at one time, and perhaps are still in some places, used 

 for the table. Though found here so far inland, this 

 plant usually frequents waste ground near the sea- 

 coast. Of these three Craigmillar plants, only one — 

 the Sweet Cicely — is noted by Dr Greville as growing 

 in this locality in his time, though Woodforde gives 

 Craigmillar Castle as a station for Alexanders. One 

 is almost forced to believe that these authorities left 

 the French sorrel out of their lists intentionally, 

 from the fact of its being a straggler from cultivation, 

 as common tradition now connects it with the name 

 of Queen Mary. To this list of "pot-herbs" perhaps 

 another should be added, namely, the plant known 



