THE SILVER-WEED— continued. 
are often seen, whether they eat the plant or not, though Dr. Prior’s suggestion that 
Goose-tansy is but a contemptuous way of saying False Tansy, like Fool’s Parsley, is 
to some extent borne out by the Scottish name of Dog’s Tansy. 
There is abundant curious evidence that the slender branching rhizomes of this 
plant were formerly used as human food in each of the three kingdoms. Ray says 
that near Settle, in Yorkshire, the boys are wont to dig them up in the winter and 
eat them ; that they call them Moors; and that they are as agreeable as parsnips. 
Lightfoot records that in the Hebrides these underground stems have sometimes 
been the sole food of the islanders for months together, they being eaten roast or 
boiled, or used as a bread-stuff ; and in the north of Ireland they have been roasted 
and eaten, under the name of Marsh-corns., in quite recent years. 
The copious pink runners, closely resembling those of the Strawberry, enable 
the plant to spread independently of seed-production ; whilst they produce a 
charming colour-grouping with the green and silver foliage and the sun-reflecting 
blossoms. The interruptedly pinnate leaves of many much-serrated leaflets, silvery 
with long, soft, silky hairs on the under surface, or on both surfaces, cannot fail to 
attract notice. Dodoens called the plant Argentina, and Silver-weed is used in Lyte’s 
translation of his herbal ; whilst Aubrey in his “ Natural History of Surrey ” 
records that in his time the people of Lingfield decked their church and their houses 
with garlands of this plant under the name of Midsummer Silver. In Guernsey it is 
called Foudle a macre, i.e. Mackerel Fern, merely, no doubt, from the appearance or 
the under side of the leaf ; and probably the Border names Fair Grass and Fair Days 
have the same origin, although the latter has been explained as referring to the 
blossoms only remaining open in sunny weather. Lord Avebury states that they 
“ partly close at night and in wet weather.” 
The flowers are solitary and generally open during the first few days of June, 
often reaching three-quarters of an inch in diameter, little pale gold roses against the 
background of silver feathers. Correlated with the copious vegetative multiplication 
of the plant by its runners is the fact that it does not often perfect its seed. 
