525.  Sea-peas.  Pisum maritimum.—­These peas have a bitterish disagreeable taste, and are therefore rejected when more pleasant food is to be got.  In the year 1555 there was a great famine in England, when the seeds of this plant were used as food, and by which thousands of families were preserved.

526.  Sea-wormwood.  Artemisia maritima.—­Those who travel the country in searching after and gathering plants, if they chance to meet with sour or ill-tasted ale, may amend it by putting an infusion of sea-wormwood into it, whereby it will be more agreeable to the palate, and less hurtful to the stomach.—­Threlkeld.  Syn.  Pl.  Hibern.

This is an ingredient in the common purl, the usual morning beverage of our hardy labouring men in London.

527.  Sea-orach, grass-leaved. Atriplex littoralis.—­This plant is eaten in the same manner as the Chenopodium.

528.  Sea-beet.  Beta maritima.—­This is a common plant on some of our sea-coasts.  The leaves are very good boiled, as are also the roots.

529.  Silver-weed. Potentilla anserina.—­The roots of this plant taste like parsneps, and are frequently eaten in Scotland either roasted or boiled.

In the islands of Tiras and Col they are much esteemed, as answering in some measure the purposes of bread, they having been known to support the inhabitants for months together during a scarcity of other provisions.  They put a yoke on their ploughs, and often tear up their pasture-grounds with a view to get the roots for their use; and as they abound most in barren and impoverished soils, and in seasons when other crops fail, they afford a most seasonable relief to the inhabitants in times of the greatest scarcity.  A singular instance this of the bounty of Providence to these islands.—­Lightfoot’s Fl.  Scot.

530.  Solomon’s-seal.  Convallaria Polygonatum.—­The roots are made into bread, and the young shoots are eaten boiled.

531.  Spatling-poppy.  Cucubalus Behen.—­Our kitchen-gardens scarcely afford a better-flavoured vegetable than the young tender shoots of this when boiled.  They ought to be gathered when they are not above two inches long.  If the plant was in cultivation, no doubt but what it would be improved, and would well reward the gardener’s trouble:  it sends forth a vast quantity of sprouts, which might be nipped off when of a proper size; and there would be a succession of fresh ones for at least two months.

It being a perennial too, the roots might be transplanted into beds like those of asparagus.—­Bryant’s Fl.  Diaetetica, p. 64.

532.  Speedwell.  Veronica spicata.—­This is used by our common people as a substitute for tea, and is said to possess a somewhat astringent taste, like green tea.

533.  Spotted hawkweed. Hypochaeris maculata.—­The leaves are eaten as salad, and are also boiled.