CUCKOO FLOWER.— Cardamine pratensis. 



Class Tetradtnamia. Order Siliquosa. Nat. Orel. Ckucifer^. 

 Ceuciferous Tribe. 



Several of our wild flowers have a name 

 which connects them with the bird whose 

 note is one of the sweet voices of the spring. 

 Thus the Wood Sorrel was of old called 

 Cuckoo's Meat ; and Cuckoo Mower is still 

 the name of a species of Lychnis, while the 

 Cuckoo bU'ds of Shakspeare were our Butter- 

 cups. The flower of the engraving is the 

 " Lady's Smock all silver Avhite " of our great 

 dramatist; and it is said to have been thus 

 called because its whitish blossoms, when 

 thickly scattered among the grass, might re- 

 mind one of linen laid there to bleach. The 

 plant blooms in May, and before the sun has 

 fully whitened it, is of a delicate lilac colour. 

 It is sometimes found double. It is about 

 a foot high, and the root-leaves are differently 

 formed from those on the stem, the leaflets 

 on the latter being roundish and slightly 

 toothed, while those of the former are slender 

 and uncut at the edges. The foliage is 

 pungent, and has been used for salad, but it has 

 not the pleasant flavour of the water-cress^ 



