EDIBLE STEMS AND LKA\ ES 



and dark-purple flowers each with four crisped, wavy 

 petals little larger than the woolly calyx. The youn.c: 

 plants, while still tender, are edihle hut need to he 

 cooked. The process pursued hy the Pananiint 

 Indians is thus described by Coville : ''The leaves 

 and young stems are gathered and thrown into boil- 

 ing water for a few minutes, then taken out, washed 

 in cold water, and squeezed. The operation of 

 washing is repeated five or six times, and the leaves 

 are finally dried, ready to be used as boiled cal)l)age. 

 Washing removes the bitter taste and certain sub- 

 stances that would be likely to produc-e nausea or 

 diarrhoea. ' ' 



One would suppose that the stinging Xettle 

 (Urtica dioica., L.) would be as unlikely a subject 

 as one could readily find to supply a morsel where- 

 with to tickle the palate. Nevertheless, this "nat- 

 uralized nuisance," as good old Doctor Darling- 

 ton of "Flora Cestrica" fame testily styles it, has 

 long been valued as a vegetable in Europe, whence 

 the plant has come to us. There the tender shoots, 

 cut before the flowering stage, were served in old 

 times on the tables of the well-to-do as well as of 

 the peasantry. On a day in February, 1G()1, Mr. 

 Samuel Pepys, of inmiortal memory, ingenuously 

 set down hi his diary the fact that calling upon one 



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