BULLETIN OF THE BUSSEY INSTITUTION. 115 
No. 11.—A Record of Analyses of several Weeds that are 
occasionally used as Human Food. By F. H. Stormr, Pro- 
fessor of Agricultural Chemistry. 
ALTHOUGH a good deal of attention has at one time and another been 
given to the question of the fodder value of various weeds that occur 
in pastures and stubble fields, and which are known to be eaten to- 
gether with grass by animals, we are still far from possessing any very 
definite knowledge either of the worth of such weeds or of their chem- 
ical characteristics. Seeking to investigate this question anew, I have 
, begun by having analyses made of several of the more promising 
kinds of weeds, such as are sometimes boiled as “greens” and used 
for human food. For it is not unnatural to infer that plants good 
enough to serve this purpose may perhaps be better fitted than mere 
grass for feeding animals. 
I have examined, among other plants, the dandelion, nettle, plantain, 
purslane, and lamb’s-quarters or pig-weed. In an earlier paper * will 
be found the analysis of the Beach Pea (Lathyrus maritimus) also, 
of which plant Drake f remarks: “In spring the vine is edible, and 
has been long used for food by the poorer people” [on the south- 
eastern coast of Maine]. 
1. DANDELION (Leontodon taraxacum). The use of dandelion 
leaves as a potherb in early spring is too well known in this part of 
the world to be insisted upon. The plant has a large fleshy root, in 
which accumulations of nourishment are manifestly stored up during 
the later part of one season, to be used for the rapid production of 
leaves and flowers in the early spring of the next year. The vigorous 
growth of the dandelion at a time when the ground is still so cold that 
many other forms of vegetation are barely starting, and the rapidity 
with which the leaves are reproduced when mown or fed down by 
pasturing cattle, are points of some importance to be considered in 
estimating the forage value of the plant. 
As will be seen more clearly further on, the dandelion, considered as 
* Bussey Bulletin, 1. pp. 349, 351. 
T In his “ Nooks and Corners of the New England Coast,” New York, 1875, 
p. 113. 
