Along the way, he acted out anecdotes and dispensed medical advice, recipes, ways to poison a hated boss (buttercups), some Greek mythology and an encyclopedic knowledge of each plant's health benefits.

Carol Levine, a volunteer member of the board at Bartlett and a field botany teacher at the New York Botanical Garden who helped lead yesterday's tour, said the arboretum doesn't encourage people to pick plants for consumption because of safety concerns. But having signed release forms before the tour began, tour members munched on a variety of wild vegetation that Brill suggested.

At the start of the tour, Brill produced a jeweler's loupe with which to inspect a sprig of chickweed, so-called for its chicken-attracting corn-on-the cob flavor. He extended it to a group of four young boys, who eyed it suspiciously before tasting its leaves.

"You have to try it even if you're chicken because chickens love chickweed," Brill said.

By tour's end, the group was treated to a menu that included wood sorrel, violet leaves, spicebush, Northern bay leaf, jewelweed for the mosquito bites they suffered along the way and a whiff of the inedible but highly pungent skunk cabbage.

Midway through the foraging lesson, Brill pinched off a leaf of a spindly stemmed plant garlic mustard and presented it to the crowd.

"It tastes disgusting!" Matthew Lichtenberg, 8, yelled as he spit it out.

Despite his brush with garlic mustard, which he pronounced the worst tasting plant on the tour, Matthew said he thought other kids would enjoy the experience.

"I would show them — what was that thing that tastes like corn?" he asked. "Yeah, chickweed. And if they liked it, I would recommend they go on the tour."

Leslie Lewis, of Stamford, took notes and filled a bag with wine cap mushrooms she planned to sauté and serve. Lewis said she often hikes through Bartlett and is familiar with many of the wild plants Brill identified.

"It's always good to know about your environment — how much more rich our surroundings are than we have an idea of," Lewis said. "We're so separated from our surroundings and this is an easy way to reconnect."

With urban sprawl and what he described as many non-ecofriendly politicians in power, it is especially important for children to learn about plants, Brill said.

"No one knows this," he said. "This stuff is delicious, healthful and puts you in touch with nature. It gives an incentive to protect it. If you respect the environment, you protect it."