CAUDA MINE PRATENSI 8 .-CUCKO W FLOWER. 
Class XXY. TETRADYNAMIA.— Order II. SILIQUOSA. 
Natural Order, SILIQU Q S iE . 
Gen. Char. Pods opening elastically, with revolute valves. Stigma entire. Calyx somewhat gaping. 
Spec. Char. Leaves pinnate. Pinnae of the radical leaves roundish, dentated, or irregularly angular. 
Pinnae of the stem leaves lanceolate. 
This species of Cardamine ('Zto-vp&plw hepov of Dioscorides,) is indigenous to Britain, common in moist 
meadows and pastures, producing its flowers in April and May ; it thrives best in shady situations. In the 
colour of its blossoms it is subject to much variation, they are usually white with a slight tinge of purple.* 
It probably acquired its common English name of Ladies-smock, from the white appearance which its 
blossoms give to the meadows where it abounds, resembling linen bleaching on the grass; a practice 
very general formerly, when most families spun and bleached their own linen ; and that of cuckow flowers, 
from their blowing early in the spring. Old Gerarde says of it, “ It flowers when the cuckowe doth begin 
to sing her pleasant notes without stammering.” This plant also gives name to one of our most beau- 
tiful species of butterfly, the Papilio Cardamine, or orange-tip butterfly of Linnaeus, the caterpillar of 
which feeds upon it. 
The root is perennial, branched, and sends off many long, round fibres ; the stalk rises about nine or 
ten inches high, upright, round, or very slightly angular, smooth, and a little branched towards the top ; the 
radical leaves are frequently imperfect or altogether wanting ; when present, spreading in a circular form, 
pinnated, the pinnae roundish, slightly and irregularly angular, and stand upon very short petioles ; the 
leaves upon the stem are erect, and consist of several pair of pinnae, with an odd one ; the pinnae are oppo- 
site, spear-shaped, concave, pointed, and of a bright green ; the flowers terminate the stem in a corymb ; 
the peduncles are smooth and round ; the calyx a perianthium, deciduous, composed of four leaves, which 
are oval, obtuse, membranous at the edge, hollow, and the alternate one gibbous at the base ; the corolla is 
cruciform, the petals are inversely ovate, white, or very pale purple, veined, slightly emarginate, claws of a 
yellowish colour ; the filaments are six, four long and two short, bearing small, oblong, incumbent yellow 
anthers, and invested at their base with four nectarious glands ; the germen is round, slender, about the 
length of the filaments; style very short; stigma globular; seed vessel a cylindrical pod of two valves, 
about an inch in length, which opens elastically when the seeds are ripe, and rolls back in a spiral form ; 
the seeds are numerous, round, somewhat flat, and of a yellowish colour. 
We are told by Miller, that there are four varieties of this species of cardamine, viz., the single 
blossom, with white and purple flowers, and the double flower of both colours. These varieties are fre- 
quently intermixed in the same meadows. The leaves of this plant are gathered by the country people and 
eaten as salad, and was formerly called Bitter-cress. 
Sensible Qualities. This plant has the same sensible qualities as water-cress ; every part of the 
plant is inodorous ; its taste is slightly bitter and pungent. A decoction of the flower is bitter. 
Medical Properties and Uses. The officinal part (the flowers,) was first brought into notice as 
an anti-spasmodic, on the authority of Sir George Baker, who read a paper in the year If 6?, at the London 
College, recommending these flowers as a remedy in convulsive disorders. In this account Sir George re- 
lates five cases wherein the flowers were successfully used, viz., two of chorea sancti Viti, one of spasmodic 
asthma, one of hemiplegia, accompanied with convulsions on the palsied side, and a case of remarkable spas- 
modic affections of the lower limbs ; the two first were cured in less than a month ; the two second were 
also happily restored, but in the last case the patient had only experienced some relief from the flowers, 
when she was seized with a fever which proved fatal. In the Manuel Medicine Pratique, &c. a case of in- 
* This plant has occasionally been seen with double blossoms. 
