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 
Fic 94. A pair of leavesof 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 racesofmen. They 
have figured in the ceremonials of all religions, serving for 
perfume, for incense, or for purification. They have served in 
