^oll 



THE ESSEX MARSHES 141 



call it sulphurwort." He found it " very plentifully on 

 the south side of a wood, belonging to Walton, at the 

 Naze in Essex, by the highway side." About a hun- 

 dred years later Ray noticed it " in the salt ditches 

 near Walton " ; and there it flourishes to-day, the most 

 distinguished plant of the Essex marshes. But sul- 

 phurwort was not the only plant that attracted the 

 notice of John Gerarde at " Landamar Lading." In 

 a meadow adjoining " a mill beyond a village called 

 Thorp, at a place called Bandamar Lading " evidently 

 the same locality as the above he found " in great 

 plentie " the wild asparagus or sperage, corrupted in 

 the language of the marshmen into " sparrow-grass." 

 The writer searched in vain last autumn for this ex- 

 ceedingly rare plant in the vicinity of " Bandamar 

 Lading " ; but it is interesting to know that it still 

 exists in the Essex marshes. Another handsome and 

 important plant seen by the great herbalist at Lander- 

 mere was the sea-holly or Eryngo. Ray thus refers to 

 it in his list of rare Essex plants, published in 1695 : 

 " This being a plant common enough on sandy shores 

 I should not have mentioned, but that Colchester is 

 noted for the first inventing and practising the candy- 

 ing or conditing of its roots, the manner whereof may 

 be seen in Gerarde's Herbal." The extract from 

 Gerarde is too lengthy for quotation, but it is worthy 

 of notice that a considerable trade in candied Eryngo- 

 roots, as a remedy in pulmonary diseases, was at that 

 time carried on at Colchester. The chamberlain's ac- 

 counts for the borough in the early years of the seven- 

 teenth century contain frequent entries with regard to 

 the payment for " Eryngoes," which seem to have been 

 valued at about four shillings a pound. The trade 

 was continued until comparatively recent years, when 



