126 
PLANT-LORE OF SHAKESPEARE 
♦ 
(1) Her fallow leas 
The Darnel, Hemlock, and rank Fumitory 
Doth root upon .—Henry V, v. 2, 44. 1 
(2) Root of Hemlock digg’d i’ the dark. —Macbeth, iv. 1, 25.2 
(3) Crown’d with rank Fumiter and Furrow-weeds, 
With Burdocks, Hemlock, Nettles, Cuckoo-flowers. 
King Lear, iv. 4, 3. 
One of the most poisonous of a suspicious family (the 
Umbelliferse), “thegreat Hemlockedoubtlesse is not possessed 
of any one good facultie, as appeareth by his loth some smell 
and other apparent signes,” and 
with this evil character the 
Hemlock was considered to be 
only fit for an ingredient of 
witches’ broth— 
“ I ha’ been plucking (plants among) 
Hemlock, Henbane, Adder’s Tongue, 
Nightshade, Moon wort, Leppard’s- 
bane.” 
Ben Jonson, Witches' Song in 
the “ Masque of the Queens. ” 
Yet the Hemlock adds largely 
to the beauty of our hedge¬ 
rows ; its spotted tall stems and 
its finely cut leaves make it a 
handsome weed, and the dead 
stems and dried umbels are marked features in the winter 
appearance of the hedges. As a poison it has an evil notoriety, 
being supposed to be the poison by which Socrates was 
1 This is the r reading of the Globe Edition—others read Plarlocks or 
Plordocks, which see. 
2 Modern research has shown that some chemical qualities of plants are 
stronger when gathered at night than by day. See “ Gardener’s Chronicle,” 
Nov. 18, 1893. 
