318 VEGETABLE SUBSTANCES. 



bright green colour. YTellow flowers, growing in 

 umbels, appear in July and August. The whole 

 plant has a strong and disagreeable odour. Its 

 light and delicately formed leaves are occasionally 

 used as a garnish ; and, when boiled, enter into the 

 composition of certain fish-sauces. 



HORSE-RADISH Cochlearia armoracia is a na- 

 tive of some marshy situations in Britain, where it 

 may be found of spontaneous growth. It has been 

 long an inmate of our gardens, and is well known 

 with its large oblong leaves, sometimes entire round 

 their edges, and sometimes deeply serrated. White, 

 cruciform flowers, growing in loose panicles, bloom 

 in the beginning of summer. This plant is made 

 the object of careful cultivation among market gar- 

 deners, who find that its most congenial soil is a 

 deep sandy loam. It is propagated by offsets, planted 

 in February, and in the autumn of the ensuing year 

 the roots are fit for use. 



MINT Mentha is a perennial plant, of which 

 there are many species and varieties. They are all 

 indigenous to Britain, and chiefly delight in low, 

 moist situations. They are all more or less aro- 

 matic in the scent, and pungent in the flavour. 

 Many of them yield sharp volatile oils by distillation. 

 With very few exceptions, the whole of this descrip- 

 tion of plants is perennial, though the leaves in some, 

 and the flowering stem in most, die down in the 

 winter. They are all native plants, and their qualities 

 are pungent and agreeable, not one of them being in 

 the least degree poisonous ; thus, whenever their 

 taste is such that they can be used as giving flavour 

 to food, that application may always be made with 

 perfect safety. Much of the natural fragrance of the 

 fields is owing to the Labiatce, the family to which 

 these sweet herbs belong. The various species of 

 thyme impart their grateful odours to the arid 



