PLANT-LORE OF SHAKESPEARE 
67 
Cucftoolm&s anb flowers* 
(1) When Daisies pied, and Violets blue, 
And Lady-smocks all silver-white, 
And Cuckoo-buds of yellow hue, 
Do paint the meadows with delight. 
Love's Labour s Lost , v. 2, 904. 
(2) He was met even now 
As mad as the vex’d sea ; singing aloud ; 
Crown’d with rank Fumiter and Furrow-weeds, 
With Burdocks, Hemlock, Nettles, Cuckoo-flowers, 
Darnel, and all the idle weeds that grow 
In our sustaining Corn .—Ring Lear, iv. 4, 1. 
There is a difficulty in deciding what flower Shakespeare 
meant by Cuckoo-buds. We now always give the name to 
the Meadow Cress {Cardamme praiensis ), but it cannot be 
that in either of these passages, because that flower is men¬ 
tioned under its other name of Lady-smocks in the previous 
line (No. 1), nor is it “ of yellow hue ; ” nor does it grow among 
Corn, as described in No. 2. Many plants have been sug¬ 
gested, and the choice seems to me to lie between two. Mr. 
Swinfen Jervis 1 decides without hesitation in favour of Cows¬ 
lips, and the yellow hue painting the meadows in spring-time 
gives much force to the decision; Schmidt gives the same 
interpretation; but I think the Buttercup, as suggested by Dr, 
Prior, will still better meet the requirements. 
CuplO's flower, see pansies. 
1 “Dictionary of the Language of Shakespeare,” 1868. 
