John Evelyn once wrote an essay called “Acetaria: a Discourse of Sallets,” and dedicated it to Lord Somers, the President of the Royal Society. The Dedication is highly laudatory and somewhat grandiloquent, comparing the Royal Society to King Solomon’s Temple, and declaring it established for the acquirement of “solid and useful knowledge by the _Investigation_ of _Causes_, _Principles_, _Energies_, _Powers_ and _Effects_ of Bodies and _Things visible_; and to improve them for the Good and Benefit of Mankind.... And now, _My Lord_, I expect some will wonder what my Meaning is, to usher in a _Trifle_ with so much magnificence, and end at last in a fine _Receipt_ for the _dressing_ of a _Sallet_ with an handful of Pot-herbs! But yet, my Lord, this Subject as low and despicable as it appears challenges a Part of _Natural History_; and the Greatest Princes have thought it no disgrace, not only to make it their _Diversion_, but their _Care_, and to promote and encourage it in the midst of their weightiest Affairs.” This disquisition casts an unlooked-for air of dignity over the Salad-bowl! The discourse itself is very practical, and begins with the _Furniture_ and _Materials_ of which a Salad may be composed. Eighty-two items are mentioned, but all cannot be called strictly in order, as Oranges, Turnips, Rosemary, and Judas Tree flowers, and Mushrooms are amongst them!
In the table at the end of this list Evelyn, “by the assistance of Mr _London_, His Majesty’s Principal Gardener, reduced them to a competent number, not exceeding thirty-five,” though he suggests that this may be “vary’d and enlarg’d by selections from the foregoing list.”
The essay finishes with philosophical reasoning on the subject of vegetarianism. History is called upon to furnish examples of sages, of all times, favourably inclined to it, but Noah is allowed to differ on account of the “humidity of the atmosphere” after the Deluge, which must have necessitated a generous diet. Most people would think thirty-five different kinds a liberal allowance for salad herbs alone, but Abercrombie, writing in 1822, gives forty-four, and it is worthy of notice, that within the last eighty years, ox-eye daisy, yarrow, lady’s-smock, primrose and plantain were counted among them.