WILD FRUITS 



IN the olden times, when the conditions of life were 

 far more simple than they are now, the use made of 

 wild plants, as has been already noticed, was con- 

 siderably greater. In days when cottage gardens and 

 allotment grounds were almost unknown, our fore- 

 fathers were accustomed to gather pot-herbs for use as 

 vegetables. The leaves of mercury, good-King-Henry, 

 and of the wild beetroot were boiled as spinach ; and 

 the roots of Smyrnium olusatrum, or alexanders, were 

 used as celery. The wild seakale was bleached with 

 sand or shingle on the seashore, and the wild cab- 

 bage was gathered on the cliffs. In the place of 

 lettuce, watercress from the running brook was exten- 

 sively used, together with corn- salad and the leaves 

 of dandelion. Before the days of parish doctors and 

 of quack medicines, now so widely advertised and so 

 largely purchased by our poorer people, the know- 

 ledge of " simples " was very considerable among the 

 good women in country places. In every village some 

 one skilled in the use of herbs was sure to be found 

 ready and able to minister to the sick. The gathering 

 of simples was a recognised branch of industry in 

 those primitive times. Agrimony, and eyebright, and 

 scurvy-grass, and lungwort, and Solomon's-seal, and 

 many another native plant, was then duly gathered 

 and prepared against the time of need. The virtue 



