﻿Localities. — In meadows and moist places — Veiy common. 



Perennial. — Flowers in April and May. 



Root thickish, white, somewhat toothed, and furnished with nu- 

 merous fibres. Stem from 9 inches to a foot or more high, upright, 

 round, smooth, leafy, simple. Stem-leaves several, on long stalks, 

 each composed of 1 or more pairs of roundish, or heart-shaped 

 leaflets, which are toothed, or cut into several irregular unequal 

 angles ; stem-leaves of more numerous, and much narrower, leaflets , 

 which are in general strap-shaped, or spear-shaped, entire, and 

 smooth ; the odd or terminal leaflets in all are the largest. Flowers 

 produced in a corymbose manner at the top of the stem, each on 

 a smooth, naked peduncle. Corolla large and handsome, either 

 light purple, flesh-coloured, or white. Petals inversely egg-shaped, 

 with a tooth or notch on the claw ; (see fig. 2). Anthers yellow. 

 Stigma capitate. 



A variety with a double flower is not uncommon in gardens, 

 where it thrives best in a moist shady situation. This variety is 

 sometimes met with in a wild state. Mr. E. B. Hewlett, Nursery- 

 man, of Oxford, found several plants of it near a small rivulet in 

 Bagley Wood. It has also been found, by Mr. Aikin, in meadows 

 about Ross Hall, near Salop. By Dr. Withering, in a field S. W. 

 of the Tap-house at Hagley, Worcestershire. By Mr. Winch, in 

 fields near the vicarage at Keswick ; and by Mr. F. Russell, in 

 a lane at Brookfield, Bitton, near Teignmouth. — The leaflets are 

 frequently viviparous, producing new plants when they come in 

 contact with the ground. 



This plant has the same sensible qualities as water-cress, though 

 in an inferior degree to it. The flowers, recent or dried, have been 

 reported to cure Epilepsy, but unhappily do not deserve such credit. 

 The dose of the powdered flowers is from a dram to two drams. 

 The juice expressed from the whole plant is considered an excel- 

 lent antiscorbutic in northern countries, where salt meat is much 

 used. According to the observations of Linnaeus, goats and sheep 

 eat this plant, cows are not fond of it, and horses and swine re- 

 fuse it. 



“ This flower,” observes Miss Kent, “ has been usually described by the 

 Poets as of a silvery whiteness, which shows the season they have chosen for 

 their rural walks to have been a late one; as, in its natural state, it is more or 

 less tinged with purple, but becomes white as it fades, by exposure to the heat 

 of the sun.” — The flowers appear about the same time with the Cuckoo, whence 

 it is called the Cuckoo .flower ; and their covering the meadows as with linen 

 spread out to bleach, is supposed to be the origin of the other English name, now 

 extended to the whole genus. — “ They are associated,” says Sir J. E. Siui-ih, 

 " with pleasant ideas of Spring, and join with the White Saxifrage, the Cowslip, 

 Primrose, and Hare-bell, to compose many a rustic nosegay.” 



Siiaksi’eare’s Cuckoo-buds are yellow, and are supposed to be the wild 

 Yellow Ranunculus. Indeed, he expressly distinguishes his Cuckoo-buds from 

 this flower. 



“ When daisies pied, and violets blue, 



And lady-smocks all silver-white, 



And cuckoo buds of yellow hue 



Do paint the meadows with delight.” 



