ANNUAL ADDRESS. 
123 
carefully destroyed by the landowners on account of the presence 
of their exceedingly poisonous but tempting-looking fruits. It 
is a handsome plant and until recently could often be seen in 
the woods to the north of Bristol. The Goutweed, as its name 
implies, had a reputation for the alleviation of gout, and the 
aromatic leaves of the White Horehound were used for the same 
purpose. 
In the same way it is the common experience to find the 
•crumbling walls oftentimes clothed with the wall pellitory, and 
brightened by the gay blossoms of the wallflower, the clove pink, 
and the hairbell. 
" Mid ruins tumbling to decay, 
Bluebells their azure hues display, 
Still freshly springing, 
Where pride and pomp have passed away ; 
To mossy wall and turret grey, 
Ivike friendship clinging." 
Coming nearer to Bristol, we have spots that have gone 
through similar treatment such as Tintern, Keynsham, Wood- 
spring, and Glastonbury, besides those where hermits chose to 
fix their lonely cells ; and amongst the ruins of these famous 
buildings flourish the self-same flowers. 
In order to understand why like plants got there it may be 
worth while to glance at the period when regular cultivation 
in fenced ground was carried on of many herbs which were 
originally indigenous, or introduced in Roman times, and are 
now again regarded as wild. 
When the religious people established a new Priory or dwelling 
place in the nth and 12th centuries, one of their first works was to 
lay out gardens adjoining. The object was to produce herbs for 
their daily food, and there was scarcely a single enclosure for 
flowers for the sake of decoration. On the other hand, however, 
some of their medicinal plants were grown in large clumps such 
as the single Rose, the Peony, the Violet, and the Poppy, which 
prevented gay colours from being altogether wanting. 
A couple of centuries later when traffic was passing freely 
between the English monastic houses and those in the North of 
France, and even in Rome, the number of different sorts of cook- 
ing vegetables had still increased only to a small extent, but the 
chief point to be noted was the difference in the quality, and 
that the kinds of aromatic herbs had become more varied. These 
latter were used for stuffing, and for adding their pungent flavour 
to the quantity of salted meats that w T ere necessarily eaten when, 
in the absence of hay and green fodder, large numbers of cattle 
and sheep could not be kept alive in the winter. 
The tastes of the better classes were formed on the recipes of 
the Romans, who insisted on strongly seasoned dishes at their 
tables, and of meats mingled in a manner that seems to the 
