MU. W. II. IlimVELL ON SOME OIISOLETE DISHES. 
603 
sometimes do both.” If the plant in the Sloane manuscript be not 
Veratmm, it must bo one of the two English species, the Stinking 
Hellebore or Bearsfoot {Hidhliono* fo-tidux) or (Ireen Hellebore 
(//. viridifi). Both are narcotic irritant poisons and very dangerous in 
the hands of un.skilled persons. They were considered “ goode 
against all the diseases whereunto Black Hellebore serveth.” 
The other herbs mentioned in the list, with the exception of 
those which, having been cultivated for centuries, could not be 
called wild, are plants from warmer latitudes, w’hich found homes 
in the sheltered gardens of halls and monasteries. 
In addition to the “ divers phy.sical herbes fit to bo planted in 
gardens,” there were herbs too many to refer to here, which were 
collected by those wlio searched woods anil pastures or “went 
simpling on the flowery hills,” and like the Widow Trueby distilled 
every poppy that grew within five miles of them. We have a hint 
as to the importance of this business in ‘Merry Wives of Windsor,’ 
where Falstaff says : “Come, I cannot cog and say thou art this and 
that, like a many of these ILsjnng hawthorn buds that come like 
women in men’s apparel and .smell like Buckler-sbury in simple-time.” 
To conclude : In this discursive paper on obsolete di.sbes I have 
endeavoured to gather together and serve up many instances, to 
show that Englishmen of the middle ages, unable, as we are, to fetch 
fresh fruit from every clime and canned meat from the Antipodes, 
yet made the best of the indigenous Fauna and Flora of the country 
to fill their laixlers and vary their bills of fare, and, in the words of 
Parkinson, “ noursod up in their gardens many herbs to preserve 
health and to cure such small diseases as are often within the 
compass of the gentlewoman’s skill.” 
VOL. IV. 
R R 
