318 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 



clearer of the senses. They were anciently 

 eaten at the conclusion of their supper; but 

 in the time of Domitian, they changed this 

 order, and served them with the first entries 

 at their feasts. 



Martial notices this change in his verse. 



" Claudere quae coenas Lactuca solebat avorum, 

 Die mihi, cur nostras inchoat ilia dapes V 



The wild lettuce as well as the cultivated, 

 was used medicinally by the Romans ; and 

 Palladius, a Greek physician, notices their 

 culture in his treatise on fevers. 



We find no attempt made to cultivate the 

 lettuce in this country, until the fourth year 

 of Queen Elizabeth's reign, 1562 ; but in 

 1597, Gerard gives us an account of eight 

 kinds of lettuce, that were then cultivated 

 in England. He says, * Lettuce maketh a 

 pleasant sallade, being eaten rawe with 

 vinegar, oil, and a little salt : but if it be 

 boiled, it is sooner digested, and nourisheth 

 more." He adds, " It is served in these 

 daies, and in these countries, at the begin- 

 ning of supper, and eaten first before any 

 other meat ; but notwithstanding, it may now 

 and then be eaten at both those times to the 

 health of the bodie : for being taken before 



