226 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 255, 



Dead man's thumb Is spoken of as "a plant that in 

 the meadow grew," which would not apply to 

 the Arum, whose habitat is hedge bottoms and 

 woods ; neither would Ophelia have found it 

 growing by a brook, near which " fantastick gar- 

 lands did she make." 



Sweet musJi rose. The musk rose was one of 

 the earliest species of roses cultivated in England ; 

 it is found wild in some parts of Spain ; its musky 

 odour is most powerful in the evening; it is 

 named by Milton, as well as by Shakspeare, wood- 

 "bine honeysuckle. 



In all botanical works the Lonicera is styled 

 woodbine honeysuckle; and Henley says, " So the 

 •woodbine, i. e. the sweet honeysuckle," &c., which 

 proves that be considered them to be the same 

 plant. In Sicily and Naples, or the Fatal Union, 

 published in 1640, the honeysuckle is spoken of 

 as " the amorous woodbine's offspring," and it is 

 therefore not improbable that in Shakspeare's time 

 the plant was known as the woodbine, and the 

 tlossom as the honeysuckle. 



Love in Idleness. The pansy is still called 

 " Love in Idleness " in Warwickshire ; and Lyte 

 names it also in his Herbal, in a long list of names 

 borne by that flower in his time. Taylor the 

 Water Poet, who was also a cotemporary of Shak- 

 speare's, quibbling on the names of plants, men- 

 tions the pansy thus : 



" When passions are let loose without a bridle. 

 Their precious time is turn'd to love in idle." 



Llnnffius, in his work on the flowers of Lapland, 

 mentions pansies of which some of the flowers 

 were white, and I have occasionally gathered spe- 

 cimens of this plant in corn fields, the upper petals 

 of which were " milk white ; " audit is well known 

 that the colours of wild flowers vary with soil and 

 situation. C. L. 



The flowers " Cuckoo-buds " mentioned by 

 Shakspeare would seem to apply to the blossoms of 

 the Greater Stitchwort (^Stellaria holostea), which 

 form so conspicuous an ornament to our hedge- 

 rows during the month of April. Even in the 

 latter end of March do we hail its delicate starry 

 flowers, betokening the approach of spring as they 

 peep from the faded blades of last year's grass. 



" The leaves are from one to three inches long. The 

 flowers, a dozen or more on each stem. Eich yellow 

 anthers surmount the silvery petals, which are large and 

 handsome, and of the purest white ; mounted on slender 

 foot-stalks, two or more inches long." 



The buds have a tinge of primrose upon them 

 before they expand, which may probably account 

 for — 



" Cuckoo-buds of yellow hue." 



The plant is commonly found in Kent on sunny 

 hedgerows, and there is well known by the name 

 " Cuckoo Flower," because it is mostly seen when 



the notes of that wild mysterious bird echo 

 through the vales and woods. 



What old English pleasaunce is there without 

 its large ancient tree of Musk Rose ? bending, in 

 early summer, beneath the weight of its thousand 

 clusters of delicate creamy semi-double flowers, 

 the peculiar perfume of which, floating on the 

 calm evening air, bears the imagination to the 

 " spicey gales " of the East. 



Are not the woodbine, eglantine, and bind- 

 weed the same, and of which there are two varie- 

 ties? — the greater (white), which attaches itself 

 to some other plant ; and the lesser one, with 

 pinkish blossoms, which trails along the ground, 

 particularly at the edges of the corn-fields, where 

 it may be found in abundance. Some notes in an 

 old edition of Shakspeare describe the " long pur- 

 ples" in " Ophelia's garland" to mean a plant, the 

 modern botanical name of which is Orchis morio 

 mas. The queen, in describing Ophelia's death, 

 says : 



And long purples 



That our cold maids do dead man's fingers call them." 

 And in an ancient black-letter ballad, entitled 

 "The Deceased Maiden Lover," we find this 

 verse, which bears upon the same flower : 



" Then round the meadowes did she walke. 

 Catching each flower by the stalke ; 

 Such as within the meddowes grew, 

 As dead man's thunibe and harebell blew." 



I find "Love in Idleness" described as the 

 " wild violet ;" although ivhy it should be said to 

 be — 



" . . . . The little western flower. 

 Purpled with Love's wound," 



I am at a loss to understand : for is it not sup- 

 posed the wild violet sprung from the blood of 

 Ajax, when he slew himself in grief at the armour 

 of Achilles being adjudged to Ulysses ? Might 

 not the Anemone claim the name, having " become 

 purpled" through the blood of Adonis ? I venture 

 not to give opinions, but simply my ideas in the 

 form of Queries, which may be solved by some 

 more exp^ienced correspondent. 



Charlotte Steacbt. 

 Kackheath Hall, Norwich. 



I am disposed to think that the " long 

 purples" are the flowers of the early orchis, 

 O. mascula. The " grosser name " alluded to by 

 the queen is still perpetuated by the present 

 generic term opxis ; whilst the plant is still called 

 " Bloody Men's Fingers " by the peasantry in the 

 neighbourhood of Cheltenham, who have a most 

 unaccountable aversion to this, one of the love- 

 liest of our spring flowers. The children, indeed, 

 will make nosegays of the blossoms, but leave 

 them at some distance from home, fearful of a 



