234 CUCKOO-FLOWER. 



bears tlie cuckoo company daring his short sojourn, it has 

 received the name of Cuckoo-flower. It is sometimes called 

 Meadow-cresses. The German name Wiesen-schaumkraut, 

 foam of the meadows, is very poetical. 



The genus comprehends nearly sixty species, five of which 

 are natives of Britain. The bitter Lady's-smock, (Cardamine 

 amara,) the only one with wliich the present species is likely 

 to be confounded, is well distinguished by the broad, angular 

 toothed leaflets of its upper leaves, its large white flowers and 

 purple anthers. C. pratensis is often cultivated in gardens for 

 the sake of its double flowers, and in this state, as if Nature 

 had provided for the propagation of the species, new plants 

 are produced from the leaflets when they come in contact w^ith 

 the ground. 



Goats and sheep are fond of the herbage of this plant, cows 

 dislike it, and horses and swine invariably refuse it. Bees and 

 the Phalasna Aurora, frequent the flowers. 



Qualities and General Uses. — This plant was formerly 

 used as a salad in the same manner as water-cress, to which in 

 its sensible qualities it bears a great resemblance, corresponding 

 with the general character of the order Cruc'iferce^ in the pos- 

 session of antiscorbutic and stimulant qualities combined with 

 an acrid flavour. Its odour is scarcely any ; the taste is rather 

 bitter and slightly acrid, and the stems possess these qualities 

 in a greater degree than the leaves and flowers. 



Medical Properties and Uses. — This plant has often been 

 confounded with tlie Water-cress, to w-hich its leaves both in 

 form and in sensible qualities bear no slight resemblance. It 

 was formerly reckoned slightly excitant, and antiscorbutic, and 

 was sometimes employed as a diuretic. Sir George Baker *, 

 first brought the flowers of the plant into notice, as an antispasm- 

 odic, and on his authority they were admitted into the British 

 Pharmacopoeias. He relates five cases, viz : two of chorea 

 sancti Viti, one of spasmodic asthma, an hemiplegia accom- 

 panied with convulsions on the palsied side, and a case of re- 

 markable spasmodic affection of the lower limbs ; the first two 

 were cured in less than a month ; the two following were also 

 removed, but in the last case the patient, after experiencing 

 some relief, was seized with a fever which proved fatal. In a 



* IMedical Transactions, vol. i. p. 442. 



