202 SALEP. 
the manufacture of paper; and the woody part of 
them makes excellent fuel. Its ripe seeds, when sub- 
jected to pressure, yield a great proportion of sweet and 
palatable oil. These seeds may also be used for the 
feeding of poultry. The receptacles of the flowers, it is 
said, may be boiled and eaten like artichokes. 
CLASS XX. GYNANDRIA. 
DIANDRIA. 
219. SALEP is the powder of the dried roots of several 
well-known field-plants of the orchis tribe (Orchis morio, O. 
inascula, &c.) 
As an article of diet, salep is supposed to contain 
the largest portion of nutriment, in an equal compass, 
of any known vegetable production : even arrow root 
(17) is, in this respect, inferior to it. The orchises 
from which it is manufactured flourish in great abun- 
dance in meadows and pastures of several parts of 
England, flowering about the months of May and June. 
As soon as the flower- stalks begin to decay, the roots 
should be dug up, and the newly-formed bulbs, which 
have then attained their perfect state, should be sepa- 
rated. When several roots are collected, they should 
be washed in water, and have their external skin 
removed by a small brush, or by dipping them in hot 
water, and rubbing them with a coarse linen cloth. 
The next process is to place them on a tin plate, and 
put them into an oven for about ten minutes, by 
which time they will have lost the milky whiteness 
which they before possessed, and will have acquired a 
transparency like horn. They are then to be spread 
in a room, where, in a few days, they will become dry 
and hard. 
