FLOWERING PLANTS OF THE GREEN LANES. 235 



former times, the leaves of the " sauce alone " were 

 boiled as table vegetables, or used for stuffing roast 

 pork. The white-flowered Dead-nettle (Lamium 

 album) is another early plant, whose whorls of 

 labiate flowers and square stems render it easily 

 recognisable. If not in the green lanes, at any rate 

 in the plantations often bordering them, or in the 

 moist meadows beyond, grows an early summer plant, 

 one of our most beautiful native flowers, the Early 

 Orchis (Orchis mascula). It grows to about a foot in 

 height, and nothing can exceed the fresh beauty of 

 its spike of pinkish-purple blossoms. The tubers 

 of this species, like the base of the cuckoo-pint, 

 contain such a degree of starchy or farinaceous 

 matter that it was formerly much sought after, 

 boiled in water, and sold at the corners of the streets 

 in London and elsewhere under the name of " saloop." 

 These tubers have been stated to contain more 

 nutritious matter, according to their bulk, than any 

 other vegetable production ; and the statement has 

 gone so far as to assert that one ounce a day was 

 sufficient to sustain a man. Our readers need not 

 try the experiment unless they choose. The same 

 moist meadows where this plant grows and we have 

 seen fields quite purpled with its blooms will be 

 sure to yield still greater numbers of the Cuckoo 

 flower, or Lady's smock, as it is also termed a 

 cruciferous plant with palish lilac flowers, and 

 pungent leaves that remind you of its affinity to the 

 cresses. In the marshier spots you will not have to 



