258 BULLETIN OF THE BUSSEY INSTITUTION. 
in his botanical garden of rare plants as early as 1629. He called 
it Virginia Silk, and it was stated that the French Canadians 
were in the habit of eating the tender shoots as substitutes for 
asparagus.” 
So too, Loudon, in his ‘* Encyclopedia of Plants,” says that 
‘*the French in Canada. eat the tender shoots of milk-weed in, 
spring as we do asparagus.” 
In 1860 another writer in the ‘‘ New England Farmer” (vol. 12, 
p. 350) commends the flavor of milk-weed greens, as being ‘* In- 
deed excellent and but little inferior to that of green peas, which 
it nearly resembles.” This writer gives the following directions 
for gathering the plants : — 
‘¢ Gather them while the stalk is brittle, say from four to six 
inches high, break out the little bud [apparently because it is 
specially liable to harbor insects], and boil the stalk and leaves— 
until soft and tender.” 
? 
A writer in the ‘‘ Genesee Farmer,” in lamenting the spread of 
the weed in pastures, meadows, and the richest lands, expresses 
himself incidentally in the following terms* in regard to its edi- 
bility : — 
‘¢General Dearborn of Boston + recommended the culture of 
milk-weed as a substitute for asparagus, and the tops are some- 
times used as greens, but there is no known use to which it can - 
be applied which will justify the farmer in allowing it to grow on 
his land. In one instance where a very luxuriant patch of this 
plant was ploughed up. pigs were allowed to rnn upon the ground. 
They ate the roots voraciously, and a number of them were 
poisoned and died in consequence. ... An efficacious method of 
destroying the plant is to sprinkle salt on the full-grown leaves 
when wet, and turn a flock of sheep to them. The sheep will 
soon strip the stems-of every leaf, and the bleeding of the plant, 
aided perhaps by the action of the salt, will ensure the destruction 
of the patch. No harm has ever resulted to the sheep so em- 
ployed.” 
The specimens examined in this laboratory were collected in the 
spring of 1877; they were dried upon racks in the shade in an 
airy glass-house that contained no growing plants, and were stored 
in a loft in tight paper bags until analyzed in July of that year. 
It was noticeable that the plants dried with extreme slowness, and 
that they retained the last portions of moisture very forcibly. No 
estimations were made of the amount of moisture in the green 
* As quoted in the ‘‘ New England Farmer, 1837, 16. 91.” 
+ In the ‘‘ Massachusetts Horticultural Register.” 
