HERBS CHIEFLY USED IN THE PAST -j^ 



journeys it is of special use, " two or three ounces a day 

 being quite sufficient for a man, even while undergoing 

 great fatigue." (Hogg.) 



Ram-CICHES (Cicer Arietinum). 



Ram-ciches, Ramshead, or Chick Pea, gains the two 

 first names from the curious shape of the seed pods 

 which are " puffed up as it were with winde in which 

 do lie two, or at the most three seeds, small towards 

 the end, with one sharp corner, not much unlike to a 

 Ram's head." Turner says that the plant is very ill for 

 newe fallowed ground and that " it killeth all herbes 

 and most and sounest of all other ground thistel," which 

 seems a loss one could survive. According to Parkin- 

 son the seeds are " boyled and stewed as the most 

 dainty kind of Pease there are, by the Spaniards," and 

 he adds that in his own opinion, " they are of a very 

 good relish and doe nourish much." They are still 

 eaten and appreciated by the country people in the south 

 of France and Spain. Like Borage, Ram-ciches is parti- 

 cularly interesting to students of chemistry ; for it is 

 said that " in very hot weather the leaves sparkle with 

 very small tears of a viscous and very limpid liquid, 

 extremely acid, and which has been discovered to be 

 oxalic acid in its pure state." ^ 



Rampion {Campanula Rapunculus). 



The Citrons, which our soil not easily doth afford, 

 The Rampions rare as that. 



Polyolhion Song, XV. 



De Gubernatis tells a most curious story from Calabria 

 almost exactly that of Cupid and Psyche, but it begins 



1 Hogg. 



