CHAPTER VIII. 



Wild plants used as food. 



THE habitual use of wild plants as food belongs to a 

 state in which man lives either amidst a very luxu- 

 riant or a very scanty vegetation. In both cases, in 

 which the spontaneous produce of the earth con- 

 tributes in any great degree to the support of families 

 and tribes, civilization is very slightly advanced. In 

 JRurope, even in the countries least favoured by 

 nature, and least improved by cultivation, wild plants 

 are seldom resorted to, except in times of scarcity ; 

 and these visitations are becoming fewer and fewer 

 wherever the arts of life, whose perfection chiefly 

 results from the division of labour, are understood 

 and practised. It will be desirable to notice very 

 briefly the expedients which men resort to for the 

 supply of their daily wants, in places where agricul- 

 ture and gardening, whether from the injurious effects 

 of an inclement climate, or particular circumstances 

 of situation, or, what is more depressing, from bad 

 government, are very far below the perfection which 

 they are capable of attaining in countries possessing 

 a moderately favourable soil called into fertility by 

 free institutions. 



COUCH-GRASS, one of the greatest pests with which 

 the farmer has to contend, whose growth is so 

 spreading and rapid, and whose vitality under the 

 extremes! drought is equally remarkable, contains a 

 portion of nutritious matter in its roots. In the 

 earlier periods of British history, when, from insuffi- 



