1859.] EARLY NAMES OF PLANTS. 271 



Early Names of Plants. — Culverkey, John-in~the-Pot, Broom, 

 Twill-pants, etc. 



It would confer a great favour on some of the younger readers 

 of your excellent journal, particularly the fair sex, if the aged 

 and wise in the science of .botany would give us the benefit of 

 their knowledge, of plants, to enable us properly to understand 

 the works of our early poets ; and assuming that they will be 

 kind enough to do so, will you allow me to ask for information, 

 that I may comprehend the following passages .in Shakespeare, 

 which are not to my mind explained by the notes to the editions 

 I have referred to. 



In the play of ' Hamlet,' reference is made by the poet to the 

 "juice of cursed hebenon,'' — which was poured from a phial 

 into the ears of the king, as he lay sleeping in his orchard, — 

 called a leper ous disiilment. I want to know what "juice of 

 cursed hebenon " is. 



Again, in the 'Tempest,' act iv. scene 1, Iris enters, and 

 says : — 



" Ceres, most bounteous lady, thy rich leas 

 Of wheat, rye, barley, vetches, oats, and peas, 

 Thy turfy mountains, where live nibbling sheep. 

 And flat meads thatched with stover, them to keep ; 

 Thy banks with pionied and twilled brims, 

 Wliich spongy April at thy best betrims 

 To make cold nymphs chaste crowns." 



Mr. Steevens, in a note to this passage, tells us he is in doubt 

 whether we ought not to read lilied brims ; for -Pliny, book 26, 

 chap. 10, mentions the Water-lily as a preserver of chastity; 

 also, that Mr. ToUett informed him that Lyte's Herbal says, 

 " one kind of Pionie is called by some, ' Maiden' or ' Virgin 

 Pionie;' " also in Ovid's ' Banquet of Sense,' by Chapman, 1595, 

 he, Mr. Steevens, met with the following stanza, in which Twill- 

 pants are enumerated among flowers : — 



" White and red Jasmines, merry MeUiphiU, 

 Fail' Crown Imperial, emperor of flowers ; 

 Immortal Amaranth, white Asphrodill, 



And cup-hke Twill-pants strewed in Bacchus' bowers." 



He then says, if Twill be the ancient name of any flower, the 

 present name 'pionied' and 'twilled' may incontrovertibly stand. 

 I have looked for the name of Twill-pant in my books, but can- 



