148 



THE HERB-GARDEN 



the only safe way to uproot it was to harness a dog 

 to the plant and let him drag at it. The dog 

 immediately died ! 



After this it is refreshing to speak of the 

 Samphire, suggesting, as it does, the open coast 

 and the salt clean breath of the sea. The Sam- 

 phire flowers are yellow, blooming late in the 

 summer, and leaving little brown ghosts of them- 

 selves after fading. The glaucous foliage is full 

 of aromatic juice, and the young shoots, for eating 

 while fresh, or pickling, are gathered in the month 

 of May. Perilous is the harvest, for the plant 

 grows usually in crags and crevices of the most 

 precipitous rocks. Many a life must have been 

 sacrificed to the search for it in the days when 

 Samphire was cried in the London streets as 

 ' Crest Marine ' ; and Gerarde said of it : ' Samphire 

 is the pleasantest sauce, most familiar and best 

 agreeing with man's body.' Very likely Shake- 

 speare ate Samphire with his dinner the very day 

 he wrote the lovely lines about the sort of place 

 where Samphire grows : 



* The crows and choughs that wing the midway air, 

 Show scarce so gross as beetles ; halfway down 

 Hangs one who gathers Samphire, dreadful trade ! 

 Methinks he seems no bigger than his head : 



