HERBS USED IN THE PRESENT TIME 29 



the English, locally, Red Cole. Evelyn calls it an 

 " excellent, universal Condiment," and says that first 

 steeped in water, then grated and tempered with vinegar, 

 in which a little sugar has been dissolved, it supplies 

 " Mustard to the Sallet, and serving likewise for any 

 Dish besides." 



Hyssop {Hyssopus officinalis). 



Hyssop, as an herb most prime, 

 Here is my wreath bestowing. 



Muses Elysium. — Drayton. 



lago. " Our bodies are our gardeners ; so that if we will plant nettles, 

 or sow lettuce, set hyssop and weed up thyme . . . why the power 

 and corrigible authority of this lies in our wills." Othello, i. 3. 



Parkinson opens his "Theatre of Plants" with the 

 words : " From a Paradise of pleasant Flowers, I am 

 fallen {Adam like) to a world of Profitable Herbs and 

 Plants . . . and first of the Hisopes. . . . Among other 

 uses, the golden hyssop was of so pleasant a colour, 

 that it provoked every gentlewoman to wear them in 

 their heads and on their arms with as much delight as 

 many fine flowers can give." It is a hardy, evergreen 

 shrub, with a strong aromatic odour. The flowers are 

 blue, and appear more or less from June till October. 

 The Ussopos of Dioscorides was named from azob, a 

 holy herb, because it was used for cleansing sacred 

 places, and this is interesting when one thinks of Scrip- 

 tural allusions to the plant, although the hyssop of the 

 Bible is most probably not our hyssop. The identity of 

 that plant has occasioned much divergence of opinion, and 

 a decision, beyond reach of criticism, has not yet been 

 reached. Mazes were sometimes planted with "Marjoram 

 and such like, or Isope and Time. It may eyther be sette 

 with Isope and Time or with Winter Savory and Time, 

 for these endure all the Winter thorowe greene." ^ 



1 " Art of Gardening," Hill, 1563. 



