EDIBLE STEMS AND LEAVES 



and dark-purple flowers each with four crisped, wavy 

 petals little larger than the woolly calyx. The young 

 plants, while still tender, are edible but need to be 

 cooked. The process pursued by the Panamint 

 Indians is thus described by Coville: "The leaves 

 and young stems are gathered and thrown into boil- 

 ing water for a few minutes, then taken out, washed 

 in cold water, and squeezed. The operation of 

 washing is repeated five or six times, and the leaves 

 are finally dried, ready to be used as boiled cabbage. 

 Washing removes the bitter taste and certain sub- 

 stances that would be likely to produce nausea or 

 diarrhoea. ' ' 



One would suppose that the stinging Nettle 

 (Urtica dioica, L.) would be as unlikely a subject 

 as one could readily find to supply a morsel where- 

 with to tickle the palate. Nevertheless, this "nat- 

 uralized nuisance," as good old Doctor Darling- 

 ton of "Flora Cestrica" fame testily styles it, has 

 long been valued as a vegetable in Europe, whence 

 the plant has come to us. There the tender shoots, 

 cut before the flowering stage, were served in old 

 times on the tables of the well-to-do as well as of 

 the peasantry. On a day in February, 1661, Mr. 

 Samuel Pepys, of immortal memory, ingenuously 

 set down in his diary the fact that calling upon one 



127 



