HERBS USED IN THE PRESENT TIME 45 



being laid to soak out the Bitterness, then peel'd may 

 be eaten raw or condited; but, best of all, stew'd with 

 Marrow, Spice, Wine. . . . They likewise may bake, fry 

 or boil them ; a more excellent Root there is hardly 

 growing." As "Spanish Salsify" it is much recom 

 mended by other writers. 



Wood-Sorrel {Oxalis Acetosella). 



Who from the tumps with bright green masses clad, 

 Plucks the Wood-Sorrel ■with its light green leaves, 

 Heart-shaped and triply folded ; and its root 

 Creeping like beaded coral, 



Charlotte Smith. 



The Wood-Sorrel has many pretty names : Alleluia, 

 Hearts, Pain de Coucou, Oseille de Bucheron ; in Italy, 

 Juliola. Wood-Sorrel is a plant of considerable interest. 

 It has put forward strong claims to be identified with 

 St Patrick's shamrock, and it has been painted, Mr 

 Friend says, "in the foreground of pictures by the 

 old Italian painters, notably Fra Angelico." For the 

 explanation of the names : "It is called by the 

 Apothecaries in their shoppes Alleluia and Lugula, the 

 one because about that time it is in flower, when Alleluja 

 in antient times was wont to be sung in the Churches ; 

 the other came corruptly from Juliola, as they of Calabria 

 in Naples doe call it." By the " Alleluja sung in the 

 churches," Parkinson means the Psalms, from Psalm 

 cxiii. to Psalm cxvii. (and including these two), for they 

 end with "Hallelujah," and were specially appointed to 

 be sung between Easter and Whitsuntide. 



" It is called Cuckowbreade, either because the 

 Cuckowes delight to feed thereon, or that it beginneth 

 to flower when the Cuckow beginneth to utter her 

 voyce." Another name was Stubwort, from its habit of 

 growing over old "stubs" or stumps of trees, and in 

 Wales it was called Fairy Bells, because people 



