90 WILD FLOWERS. 



that a very small quantity of the cormeille will 

 enable them to repel hunger and thirst for 

 many hours. In some parts of Scotland, the 

 roots are bruised and made into a fermented 

 liquor. They are very nutritive, and have 

 been used, when boiled, both in England and 

 Scotland, as fov><I in times of scarcity. In 

 Holland and Flanders, they are commonly 

 roasted as chestnuts, and have a very similar 

 flavour to that of this fruit ; yet in our coun- 

 try they are scarcely known to be of any value, 

 and are quite neglected by villagers, though 

 the flower is often gathered for the wild nose- 

 gay. It is known by the names of wood-pea 

 and heath-pea, and, in Scotland, generally called 

 by the name of knapperts. 



During this month and the next, a number 

 of vetches and vetchlings come into flower. 

 They may be generally described as plants 

 with butterfly-shaped blossoms, mostly of a 

 purple, or red colour, though a few of them have 

 yellow flowers. They have slender leaves, and 

 twining, or straggling stems, some of them with 

 tendrils. The pretty crimson vetchling, or 

 grass-vetch, {Lathyriis nissolia,) mth its slen- 

 der grass-like leaves, is in bloom this month, 

 on the green borders of fields ; and the spring 

 vetch (Ficia sativa) is not nnfrequcnt now on 

 roads and pastures ; but these are difficult to 

 describe without the use of botanical terms. 



Several species of vetch yield good herbage for 

 cattle ; and as they all have legumes, or pods, 

 full of seeds, they afibrd food for birds. The 



