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. 534. STINGING-NETTLE. Urtica dioica.--The young shoots in the spring are eaten boiled with fat meat, and are esteemed both wholesome and nutritive. 535. SHRUBBY STRAWBERRY. Rubus arcticus.--The fruit of this plant is very similar in appearance to a strawberry: its odour is of the most grateful kind; and its flavour has that delicate mixture of acid and sweet, which is not to be equalled by our best varieties of that fruit. 536. SWEET CICELY. Scandix odorata.--The leaves used to be employed in the kitchen as those of cervil. The green seeds ground small, and used with lettuce or other cold salads, give them an agreeable taste. It also grows in abundance in some parts of Italy, where it is considered as a very useful vegetable. 537. WATER-CRESS. Sisymbrium Nasturtium.--A well known herb in common use, but is not in cultivation, although it is one of our best salads. 538. WILLOW-HERB. Epilobium angustifolium.--The young shoots of these are eaten as asparagus. * * * * * SECTION XI.--PLANTS USEFUL IN DYEING. There is no department of the oeconomy of vegetables in which we are more at a loss than in the knowledge of their colouring principles; and as this subject presents to the student an opportunity of making many interesting and useful experiments, I trust I shall stand excused, if I enter more fully into the nature of it than I have found it necessary to do in some of the former sections. The following list of plants, which is given as containing colours of different kinds, are the same as have been so considered for many years past: for, latterly, little has been added to our stock of knowledge on this head. It may however be proper to observe, that a great number of vegetables still contain this principle in a superior degree, and only want the proper attention paid to the abstracting it.