Abstract
THERE is perhaps no country in the world so rich as England in native materials for salad-making, and none in which ignorance and prejudice have more restricted their employment. At every season of the year the peasant may cull from the field and hedge-row whole-some herbs which would impart a pleasant variety to his monotonous meal, and save his store of potatoes from premature exhaustion; and there can be no question that in hot seasons a judicious admixture of fresh green food is as salutary as it is agreeable. Much has been said lately about the advantage which the labouring man would derive from an accurate acquaintance with the various sorts of fungus, and he has been gravely told that the Fistulina hepatica is an admirable substitute for beef-steak, and the Agaricus gambosus for the equally unknown veal cutlet. But deep-rooted suspicion is not easily eradicated, and there will always be a certain amount of hazard in dealing with a class of products in which the distinctions between noxious and innocuous are not very clearly marked. There is not this difficulty with regard to salad herbs, and we conceive that the diffusion of a little knowledge as to their properties and value would be an unmixed benefit to our rural population.
Article PDF
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
ROBINSON, C. Our Salad Herbs. Nature 2, 317 (1870). https://doi.org/10.1038/002317a0
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/002317a0