132 
PLANT-LORE OF SHAKESPEARE 
FElfric’s “ Vocabulary ” of the tenth century it is applied to 
the Hedera nigra , which may be either the Common or the 
Ground Ivy (“ Hedera nigra—Wude-binde ”); and in the 
Plerbarium and Leechdom books of the twelfth century it is 
applied to the Capparis or Caper-plant, by which, however (as 
Mr. Cockayne considers), the Convolvulus Sepium is meant. 
After Shakespeare’s time again the words began to be used 
confusedly. Milton does not seem to have been very clear in 
the matter. In “Paradise Lost” he makes our first parents 
“wind the Woodbine round this arbour” (perhaps he had 
Shakespeare’s arbour in his mind); and in “ Comus ” he tells 
us of 
“ A bank 
With ivy canopied, and interwove 
With flaunting Honeysuckle.” 1 
While in “ Lycidas ” he tells of 
“The Musk Rose and the well-attired Woodbine.” 
And we can scarcely suppose that he would apply two such 
contrary epithets as “ flaunting ” and “ well-attired ” to the 
same plant. And now the name, as of old, is used with great 
uncertainty, and I have heard it applied to many plants, and 
especially to the small sweet-scented Clematis (C. fiammula). 
But with the Honeysuckle there is no such difficulty. The 
name is an old one, and in its earliest use was no doubt in¬ 
differently applied to many sweet-scented flowers (the Primrose 
amongst them); but it was soon attached exclusively to our 
own sweet Honeysuckle of the woods and hedges. We have 
two native species ( Lonicera periclymenum and L. xylosteum ), 
and there are about eighty exotic species, but none of them 
sweeter or prettier than our own, which, besides its fragrant 
flowers, has pretty, fleshy, red fruit. 
1 Milton probably took the idea from Theocritus— 
“ Ivy reaches up and climbs, 
Gilded with blossom-dust about its lip ; 
Round which a Woodbine wreathes itself, and flaunts 
Her saffron fruitage .”—Idyll i. ( Calvefley). 
