46 WILD FLOWERS. 



with that peculiar acid known as equisetic acid* 

 first discovered by Braconnot, in the E. Telmateia 

 of Ehrhart (the E. fl&viatile of Smith, Hooker, and 

 Babington), a fertile stem of which is represented 

 in the woodcut. 



A remembrance of the rough and rigid nature of 

 these plants will, without the aid of 

 physiological or chemical examination, 

 suffice to excite our surprise that any of 

 the family should be used as human food, 

 yet such is, nevertheless, the case ; while 

 the lower mammalia, also, in at least one 

 instance, make choice of them. Modern 

 writers have expressed some doubt as to 

 the meaning of Haller, in his reference 

 to the circumstance of the Romans eating 

 the great horsetail ;( but we need go no 

 farther back than to the days of William 

 Coles, who in his "Adam in Eden/' to 

 which we have before referred, tells us, 

 as of a matter ordinarily practised, that 

 "the young buds are dressed by some 

 like asparagus ; or, being boiled, are often 

 strewed with flour and fried ;" being 

 thus evidently regarded as a delicacy. 

 Frequent have been the discussions as 

 to whether or not horses and cows will 

 E Se"Tei- eat these P^nts. One party declaring 

 mateta. ^at they will not, while the other, as 



confidently affirms that they do; a sort of "by-play" 



* "Ann. de Chim. et Phys.," xxxix, 10. 

 f " Hoc fuerit equisetum quod a plebe Eomana in cibum 

 recipitur." Hist. iii. 



