73 
PLANT-LORE OF SHAKESPEARE 
It may be mentioned as a special charm of the Daisy, that if 
only the winter is mild, there is probably no month of the 
year in which one or more Daisies cannot be picked. 
2>amson0, see {plums* 
IDarneL 
(1) Darnel, and all the idle weeds that grow 
In our sustaining Corn. 
King Lear, iv. 4, 5. (See Cuckoo-flowers.) 
(2) Her fallow leas, 
The Darnel, Hemlock, and rank Fumitory 
Doth root upon .—Henry V, v. 2, 44. 
(3) Good morrow, Gallants ! want ye Corn for bread? 
I think the Duke of Burgundy will fast, 
Before he’ll buy again at such a rate ; 
’Twas full of Darnel ; do you like the taste? 
1 st Henry VI, iii. 2, 41. 
Virgil, in his Fifth Eclogue, says— 
“ Grandia saepe quibus mandavimus hordea solcis 
Infelix lolium et steriles dominantur a venae.” 
Thus translated by Thomas Newton, 1587— 
‘ ‘ Sometimes there sproutes abundant store 
Of baggage, noisome weeds, 
Burres, Brembles, Darnel, Cockle, Dawke, 
Wild Oates, and choaking seedes.” 
And the same is repeated in the first Georgic, and in both 
places lolium is always translated Darnel, and so by common 
consent Darnel is identified with the Lolium temulentum or 
wild Rye Grass. But in Shakespeare’s time Darnel, like 
Cockle (which see), was the general name for any hurtful weed. 
