Camping and woodcraft - Scoutmastercg.com

EDIBLE PLANTS 391Purslane. Pussley. Portulaca Oleracea.Fields and waste places. A weed of almost worldwidedistribution. Summer,This weed was used as a pot-herb by the Greeksand Romans, and is still so used in Europe. Theyoung shoots should be gathered w^hen from 2 to5 inches long. May also be used as a salad, orpickled. Taste somewhat like string beans, with aslight acid flavor. The seeds, ground to flour, havebeen used by Indians in the form of mush.Red-Bud. Cercis Canadensis.French-Canadians use the acid flowers of thistree in salads. The buds and tender pods arepickled in vinegar. All may be fried in butter,or made into fritters.Saxifrage, Lettuce. Saxifraga micranthidifolia.In cold brooks. Appalachian Mts. from Pa.to N. C. May-June.Eaten by Carolina mountaineers as a salad underthe name of "lettuce."Shepherd^s Purse. Bursa Bursa-pastoris{Capsella B.). Fields and waste places everywhere.Naturalized. Jan.-Dec.A good substitute for spinach. Delicious whenblanched and served as a salad. Tastes somewhatlike cabbage, but is much more delicate.Skunk Cabbage. Spathyema foetida {Symplocarpus/.). Swamps and wet soil. Throughoutthe east, and west to Minn, and Iowa. Feb.- April.The root of this foul-smelling plant was bakedor roasted by eastern Indians, to extract the juice,and used as a bread-root. Doubtless they got thehint from the bear, who is very fond of this, oneof the first green things to appear in spring.SoLOMON''s Seal. Polygonatum biflorum. Woodsand thickets. New Brunsw. to Mich., south toFla. and W. Va. April-July.Indians boiled the young shoots in spring andate them ; also dried the mature roots in fall, groundor pounded them, and baked them into bread.raw plant is medicinal.The