1857.] ECONOMICAL BOTANY. 129 



It seems as though some mystic power hath lent its aid to 

 metamorphose nature thus^ that she even does not know herself; 

 she^ ever in her generations chaste, still disowns her hybrid pro- 

 geny, yet always prone to receive again to her bosom her vagrant 

 o£Pspring. 



An account of some of our British plants, used as esculents : — 

 /S^w«/J^5 nigra and S. alba, the young tops. This S. nigra was 

 much cultivated for its seeds, which were used as a condiment, 

 and also medicinally. They were bruised by the rotary motion 

 of an iron ball in a wooden bowl ; the appearance was unsightly, 

 but it was genuine mustard. Sisymbi'ium officinale, JSgopodium 

 Podagraria, Chenopodium Bonus-Henricus, Chenopodium album, 

 Myrrhis odorata, Atriplex patula. Polygonum Bistorta, Allium 

 ursinum, Urtica dioica. Our Saxon ancestors cultivated the 

 Nettle, as we do Hemp, for cloth for domestic uses ; paper may 

 be made from its fibre. Humulus Lupulus, the young shoots. 

 Petroselinum sativum, Erysimum Alliaria. Those herbs men- 

 tioned were used in the spring of the year and early part of the 

 summer, and were considered very wholesome and beneficial for 

 purifying the blood ; and undoubtedly in those times were use- 

 ful for that purpose as attenuants, when scorbutic complaints 

 were so prevalent, from feeding during the winter months on 

 salted meats, and when our present culinary esculents were un- 

 known. 



Many of those plants which were considered as good for food 

 and medicine, and were cultivated in gardens for those purposes, 

 still linger about our dwellings as outcasts. 



Oh, how delightful were those excursions I used to take, to 

 gather those esculents and medicinal herbs for the village doc- 

 tress, to relieve her suflcring neighbours' ailments ! Collecting 

 those herbs first gave me a desire to study botany, which con- 

 ferred on my after -years the greatest enjoyment. 



In no pursuit is there more pleasure derived than from the 

 study of natural history. Let the morbid sceptic study natural 

 history ; it will remove the gloomy visions of his mind, and he 

 will become the happiest of mankind. 



The following herbs are principally used in domestic therapeu- 

 tics for difierent purposes : — 



As tonics and corroborants, we have no occasion to go to Peru 

 for Cinchona, when we have at home plants equally efficacious, — 



N. S. VOL. II. s 



