174 KNOTTED PIG-WORT. 



would call winged. It has a disagreeable 

 odour, like that of the Elder-tree, and both 

 species are usually considered unwholesome, 

 and are dishked by cattle. That the Water 

 Fig-wort may be used as food, has, however, 

 been proved ; for during the celebrated siege 

 of Rochelle by Cardinal Richelieu, in 1628, 

 the soldiers, when in great distress, resorted 

 to the roots of various plants, and were in 

 their extremity mainly supported by those of 

 this Fig-wort. The French to this day call the 

 plant Herhe die Sle^e, in memory of the event. 

 The Rev. C. A. Johns, in his '' Flowers of the 

 Field," remarks that the stems of this plant, 

 though hollow and succulent, are rigid when 

 dead, and prove very troublesome to anglers, 

 owing to their lines becoming entangled in the 

 withered capsules. 



The flowers of the Fig-wort are very attrac- 

 tive to several insects, and are said to be 

 especially resorted to by wasps. There are 

 two other species besides those named : the 

 Balm-leaved Fig-wort {Scrop/udmia scoro- 

 donia), and the Yellow Fig-wort {Scrophdaria 

 vernalis), but they are not common flowers. 



