[36] Hogg, “The Vegetable Kingdom and its Products.”
VIPER’S GRASS or SCORZONERA (_Scorzonera Hispanica_).
The virtues of this herb were known, but not much regarded, before “Monardus,[37] a famous physician in _Sivell_,” published a book in which was “set downe that a Moore, a bond-slave, did help those that were bitten of that venomous beast or Viper... which they of Catalonia, where they breed in abundance, call in their language _Escuersos_ (from whence _Scorsonera_ is derived), with the juice of the herb, and the root given them to eate,” and states that this would effect a cure when other well-authorised remedies failed. “The rootes hereof, being preserved with sugar, as I have done often, doe eate almost as delicate as the Eringus roote.” Evelyn is loud in its praise. It is “a very sweete and pleasant _Sallet_, being laid to soak out the Bitterness, then peel’d may be eaten raw or _condited_; but, best of all, stew’d with _Marrow_, _Spice_, _Wine_.... They likewise may bake, fry or boil them; a more excellent Root there is hardly growing.” As “Spanish Salsify” it is much recommended by other writers.
Who from the tumps with bright green masses clad, Plucks the Wood-Sorrel with its light green leaves, Heart shaped and triply folded; and its root Creeping like beaded coral.
The Wood-Sorrel has many pretty names: Alleluia, Hearts, _Pain de Coucou_, _Oseille de Bûcheron_; in Italy, _Juliola_. Wood-Sorrel is a plant of considerable interest. It has put forward strong claims to be identified with St Patrick’s shamrock, and it has been painted, Mr Friend says, “in the foreground of pictures by the old Italian painters, notably Fra Angelico.” For the explanation of the names: “It is called by the Apothecaries in their shoppes _Alleluia_ and _Lugula_, the one because about that time it is in flower, when _Alleluja_ in antient times was wont to be sung in the Churches; the other came corruptly from _Juliola_, as they of Calabria in Naples doe call it.” By the “Alleluja sung in the churches,” Parkinson means the Psalms, from Psalm cxiii. to Psalm cxvii. (and including these two), for they end with “Hallelujah,” and were specially appointed to be sung between Easter and Whitsuntide.