2 2 THE BOOK OF HERBS 



with Lettuce and Purslane, or sometimes with Tarragon or 

 Rocket with oyle, vinegar, and a little salt, and in that 

 manner it is very savoury." 



Water-Cress {Nasturtium officinale) is rich in mineral 

 salts and is valuable as food. The leaves remain 

 "green when grown in the shade, but become of a 

 purple brown because of their iron, when exposed to 

 the sun," says Dr Fernie. " It forms the chief 

 ingredient of the Sir(^ Antiscorbutique, given so success- 

 fully by the French faculty." "Water-Cress pottage" 

 is a good remedy " to help head aches. Those that 

 would live in health may use it if they please, if they 

 will not I cannot help it." This is Culpepper's advice, 

 but he relents even to those too weak-minded to avail 

 themselves of a cure, salutary but unpalatable. "If 

 they fancy not pottage they may eat the herb as a 

 sallet. 



Dandelion (Leontodon taraxacum). 



Dandelion, with globe and down, 

 The schoolboy's clock in every town, 

 Which the truant puffs amain, 

 To conjure lost hours back again, 



William Howitt. 



Dandelion leaves used to be boiled with lentils, and one 

 recipe bids one have them " chopped as pot-herbes, with 

 a few Allisanders boyled in their broth." But generally 

 they were regarded as a medicinal, rather than a salad 

 plant. Evelyn, however, includes them in his list, and 

 says they should be " macerated in several waters, to ex- 

 tract the Bitterness. It was with this Homely Fare the 

 Good Wife Hecate entertain'd Theseus.^' A better way of 

 " extracting the Bitterness " is to blanch the leaves, and 

 it has been advised to dig up plants from the road-sides 

 in winter when salad is scarce, and force them in pots 

 like succory. He continues that of late years " they have 

 been sold in most Herb Shops about London for being a 



