116 OLD ENGLISH FLOWER NAMES 



later writers applied the name to the wallflower and 

 stock. Another name for this flower was sops-in-wine 



' Many a clove gilofre 

 And notemuge to put in ale, 

 Whether it be moist or stale.' 



Gerarde observes that ' the conserue made of the floures 

 of the Cloue Gillofloure and sugar, is exceedingly 

 cordiall, and wonderfully aboue measure doth comfort 

 the heart, being eaten now and then.' Why does not 

 some enterprising housewife revive this forgotten 

 dainty ? 



There has been controversy, too, over the identity of 

 Homer's asphodel. It was probably a kind of narcissus, 

 and the name survives in our ' daffodil,' through the old 

 French fleur d'asphodille ; but Lucian and later writers 

 assigned it to a plant with an edible root, classed by 

 Linnseus as Asphodelus. Another kind of narcissus 

 (N. incomparabilis) is well named nonpareil, though 

 the fragrant double form thereof has fared less felici- 

 tously as butter-and-eggs. 



Talking of edible roots, notice may be made of a 

 comical blunder fallen into by the early translators of 

 the Old Testament. We read in 2 Kings vi. 25 that, 

 during the siege of Samaria in the reign of Ahab, the 

 famine was so terrible that the fourth part of a cab of 

 dove's dung was sold for five shekels; that is, about 

 half a pint for twelve shillings. This statement greatly 

 perplexed the erudite Cruden in the preparation of his 

 Concordance; for it is clear that no amount of that 

 unsavoury material could be of the slightest use, even 



