246 NATURAL HISTORY OF THE FARM 



vegetable products, add to the zest of our eating and to the 

 value of our diet. Of vegetable flavorings there is no end. 

 There are acid flavors, like those of the leaves of the sorrels, 

 long since supplanted in our diet by artificially prepared 

 vinegars (yet what child of the field does not still nibble at 

 sorrel leaves?). There are pungent flavors in the peppers 

 and in many crucifers — in the leaves of the cresses, in the 

 roots of radish and horse-radish, and in the seeds of pepper- 

 grass and of mustard. It is flavor and not food that children 

 get from chewing mallow "cheeses" (fig. 93), or slippery- 

 elm bark, or linden buds. There are pleasant oleraceous 

 flavors in kale and cabbage and cauliflower; and then there 

 are the flavors of the savory herbs, the subject of this study. 



The beasts also desire these 

 pleasant adjuncts to their diet. 

 Cats like catnip and valerian. 

 Dogs like certain of the goose 

 foots. Cattle love to crop the 

 twigs of apple and hawthorn 



Fig. 94. A pair of leaves of catnip. and even the shoots of the 



poison-ivy and other plants 

 that are to us harmful. Wild deer are fond of nettles. 

 Horses like their hay best when it is fragrant with the natural 

 aromatic oils of certain of the grasses, well preserved by 

 proper curing. It is noticeable that in these animals, as in 

 ourselves, taste and smell are intimately associated. The cat 

 not only bites the leaves of the catnip to taste them, but he 

 sniffs of them and rolls himself upon them, so as to carry the 

 aroma with him. Then he licks his fur in complete satis- 

 faction. 



Savory herbs, possessing fine aromatic scents and flavors, 

 have been sought out and used by all the races of men. They 

 have figured in the ceremonials of all religions, serving for 

 perfume, for incense, or for purification. They have served in 



