300 pFaat Tsore, "begeT^^/, anil "bLjrle/. 



and was said to excite amatory passions. Robert Turner states 



that the plant was sometimes called Filias ante Patrem, because it 

 puts forth flowers before the leaves. This old herbalist, who lived 

 in the reign of Charles II., would seem to have been a thorough 

 Royalist, for after remarking that large crops of Saffron-flowers 

 were grown at Saffron-Walden, he adds that the crop " must be 

 gathered as soon as it is blown, or else it is lost; so that Jack 

 Presbyter for covetousness of the profit can reach his Sabbatarian 

 conscience to gather it on Sunday ; and so he can do anything else 



that redounds to his profit, tho' it destroy his brother." The 



Crocus or Saffron is a herb of the Sun, and under the Lion. 



CUCKOO FLOWERS.— Various flowers are called after 

 the " harbinger of Spring." In old works, the name " Cuckoo 

 Flower " was given to the Lychnis flos cuculi, but is now generally 

 applied to the Lady's Smock [Cardamine pratensis). Cuckoo Gilli- 

 flower was a name also given to the Lychnis flos cuculi, on account 

 of its blooming at the time the Cuckoo's song was heard. 

 " Cuckoo's Bread," or " Cuckoo's Meat " is the Wood Sorrel, 

 Oxalis Acetosella. Shakspeare's " Cuckoo Buds of yellow hue " are 

 probably the buds of the Crowfoot. " Cuckoo Grass " is the 

 Luzula Campestris, a grass-like Rush, flowering at the time of the 

 Cuckoo. " Cuckoo Pint," or " Pintle " is the Arum maculatum. 



CUCUMBER. — In the East, the Cucumber {Cucumis sativa) 

 has been cultivated from the earliest periods. When the Israelites 

 complained to Moses in the wilderness, comparmg their old Egyp- 

 tian luxuries with the Manna of the wilderness, they exclaimed: 

 "We remember the fish which we did eat in Egypt freely, the 

 Cucumbers, and the Melons." Isaiah, depidling the desolation of 

 Judah, said : " The daughter of Zion is left as a cottage in a vine- 

 yard—as a lodge in a garden of Cucumbers" — in allusion to the 



practise of cultivating Cucumbers in open fields. Although, 



says De Gubernatis, the Buddhists derive the name of Ikshvdku 

 from Ikshi (Sugar-cane), we must not forget that the wife of Sagara, 

 to whom was promised sixty thousand children, first gave birth to 

 an Ikshvaku, that is to say, to a Cucumber. Just as the Cucumber 

 and the Pumpkin or Gourd are gifted with fecundity and the desire 

 to climb, so Trisanku, one of the descendants of Ikshvaku, had the 

 ambition to ascend to heaven, and he obtained that favour by the 

 assistance of the sage Visvamitra. There was formerly a super- 

 stitious belief in England that Cucumbers had the power of killing 

 by their natural coldness. Gerarde says " they yield to the body a 

 cold and moist nourishment, and that very little, and the same not 



good." To dream of Cucumbers denotes recovery to the sick, 



and that you will speedily fall in love; or if you are in love, that 

 you will marry the objedl of your affecflion. It also denotes mode- 

 rate success in trade; to a sailor a pleasant voyage. Cucumbers 



are under the influence of the Moon. 



