APRIL 95 



officinalis) which trims the sea-cliffs of our west coast 

 with a modest embroidery of fleshy, shining leaves and 

 early white flowers, he spoke of the frenzied eagerness 

 with which his shipmates used to pounce upon this 

 herb, whereof the precious verdure penetrates higher 

 latitude — nearer the North Pole — than any other Cross- 

 bearer. Those were the days of long, slow voyages 

 and salted provender. Tinned fresh meat and vege- 

 tables were unknown; the dread spectre of scurvy 

 hovered in the wake of every whale-ship. At times the 

 craving for green food became unendurable, the relief 

 obtained from the succulent, somewhat saline, leaves of 

 Cochlearia unspeakable. 



The yellow-flowered woad (Isatis tinctoria) with 

 which Csesar records that the Britons of his day used 

 to colour their skins, is still grown, I am told, as a crop 

 on two or three farms in East Anglia, or was so a few 

 years ago, for the sake of the fine blue dye extracted 

 from the radical leaves, just as it was in the reign of 

 Boadicea. The price used to run about £25 a ton ; but 

 first indigo and then aniline dyes knocked it down to 

 a figure which can leave but bare profit, if any, to the 

 cultivator. We used to grow woad in our borders, less 

 for its ornamental quality, which is but slight, than from 

 sentiment ; but it has had to make way for more comely 

 things, many of them contributed by the order of the 

 Cross-bearers. 



One has but to name wallflowers, stocks, rocket, 

 candytuft, sweet madwort, arabis, honesty, and aubretia 

 to realise what blanks would be left in the borders 

 if the Cross-bearers were to march off. Howbeit, there 



