Johnson : ' Good King Henry. 



375 



everywhere.' The word 'everywhere' would appear to extend 

 the meanuig" of the previously-mentioned and more restricted 

 habitats, but the plant does not seem very common in the 

 lowlands. A day's herborising on the alluvium which lies 

 between Lakes Neuchatel, Bienne, and Morat, failed to reveal 

 its presence, although it seems to be independent, to some 

 considerable degree, of geological conditions. It is quite as 

 much at home on the Jurassic limestones as on the crystalline 

 rocks. The local name, presumably a German patois word 

 allied to Heinrich, is Heiminie or Heimen — the spelling is 

 mine host's. The peasants sometimes cook the plant for the 

 table in spring, but the practice does not appear to be common. 

 This neglect of a wholesome vegetable food, by the all-too-poor 

 labourers in Switzerland and at home, is simply deplorable. 



Putting together the foregoing considerations, it seems 

 probable that Good King Henry is an introduced plant in 

 Eastern England. One wonders whether the Dutch, who helped 

 to drain the Fens, and who left their influence both in our 

 architecture and agriculture, were responsible for the importa- 

 tion. Or was it at an earlier period that the teutonic tribes, 

 intentionally or by oversight, carried across the North Sea the 

 seeds of the savoury herb ? In this connection, and especially 

 as touching the use of the name Good King Henry in the 

 Cambridgeshire of Gerarde's day, it is of prime importance to 

 remember the German term, which is the equivalent of our own. 

 It is also more likely, a priori, that an introduced plant or 

 a garden escape should, after becoming generally distributed, 

 come to be looked upon as indigenous, than that a rank, hardy 

 perennial like Marquery, should be so extremely partial to 

 particular artificial habitats, and those habitats most usually 

 near the dwellings of man. For, though Marquery may prefer 

 cultivation, it is sturdy enough to thrive in any moderately 

 good soil, and will exist exiguously among the dust at the roots 

 of old masonry, or by the dry highway. The problem as to 

 how it may have climbed the Pennines is more perplexing. 

 One dare not do more than make the hint. Such mountaineering 

 feats, occupying the course of centuries, are not unknown, and, 

 at any rate, there seems to be a fair case for investigation. 



PRINCIPAL REFERENCES : 



Babington, C. C, 'Manual Brit. Botany' (8th ed., 1881), p. 301. 

 Bentham, 'British Flora' (7th ed., 1900), p. 376. 

 Brewer, J. A., ' Flora of Surrey ' (1863). 



1904 Deceniber i. 



