USEFUL WILD PLANTS 



and a noticeable sweetness of taste. Of this species 

 even the flowers are eaten. Next to this in flavor 

 is the ''sour" or "salt clover" {T. ohtusiflorum, 

 Hook.), with narrow, saw-toothed leaflets, whitish 

 blossoms with purple centers, and a clammy, acid- 

 ulous exudation -that covers the leaves and flowers. 

 I had thought to close this chapter here, when a 

 correspondent who is a veteran camper. Dr. Robert 

 T. Morris, of New York, reminds me of certain other 

 plants which he has found so useful that I add them. 

 The Spotted Touch-me-not or Jewel-weed {Irnpa- 

 tiens fulva, Nutt.) he has depended upon for weeks 

 at a time in the northeastern wilderness, where, 

 under the name of Lamb's-quarters, it is commonly 

 regarded as an important vegetable food. It luxu- 

 riates beside shady rills, and its orange-colored 

 spotted flowers, followed by fat pods that burst at 

 a touch, are familiar to all. Excellent, too, in early 

 spring, are the latent buds of the Cinnamon and 

 Interrupted Ferns {Osmmidas), rivals of the chest- 

 nut in flavor and size. Then those leathery lichens 

 common on rocks and known as Rock -tripe {Umhili- 

 caria), so often included in the menus of old-time 

 hunters and voyageurs, have value. "They make," 

 to quote Dr. Morris, "an excellent pottage, although 

 the addition of a little bacon or deer meat or wild 

 onion improves the flavor very mucli." 



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