SEASONING HERBS. 315 



tree has been long naturalized, being cultivated in 

 the vicinity of Paris with no other shelter than a low 

 wall, against which it is trained ; in winter, the 

 shoots are laid down, and covered with litter or fern. 

 JVear Toulon it is not trained in this manner, but 

 overspreads the ground in the manner of brambles. 

 It is a trailing shrub, and in the southern parts 

 of JEurope, where it is found native, grows very 

 abundantly out of the joints of old walls, the fissures 

 of rocks, and amongst ruins. The stem is ligneous, 

 sending out many lateral branches ; the shoots rise 

 two or three feet, and then become procumbent. 

 From under each of the branches proceed two 

 crooked spines ; immediately above these the petioles 

 of the kidney-shaped leaves are produced. White 

 flowers, growing on long peduncles, would, if allowed 

 to remain, bloom through the summer ; but before 

 they expand, their buds, with the empalements, are 

 plucked and used for pickling. A large quantity of 

 these, which form a well-known pickle, is annually 

 imported into England, from Italy and ports in the 

 Mediterranean. 



SEASONING HERBS. 



VEGETABLES of this description are never used with 

 any reference to their substantive qualities, as articles 

 of food. They are employed merely for their fla- 

 vour, forming subordinate ingredients in the culi- 

 nary art, and are respectively applied in various com- 

 binations according to the skill or the pleasure of the 

 operator. 



Many of this class of plants were formerly much 

 esteemed for their real or imaginary medical vir- 

 tues, and some of them are in the present day con- 

 sidered of sufficient value to be ranked among phar- 

 raaceutic simples. 



