140 
PLANT-LORE OF SHAKESPEARE 
grass. There is no doubt that this is the plant meant, and its 
connection with a dwarf is explained by the belief, probably 
derived from some unrecorded character detected by the 
“ doctrine of signatures,” that the growth of children could be 
stopped by a diet of Knot-grass. Steevens quotes Beaumont 
and Fletcher to this effect, and this will probably explain the 
epithet “hindering.” But there maybe another explanation. 
Johnston tells us that in the north, “ being difficult to cut in 
the harvest time, or to pull in the process of weeding, it has 
obtained the sobriquet of the Deil’s-lingels.” From this it may 
well be called “hindering,” just as the Ononis, from the same 
habit of catching the plough and harrow, has obtained the 
prettier name of “ Rest-harrow.” 
But though Shakespeare’s Knot-grass is undoubtedly the 
Polygonum, yet the name was also given to another plant, for 
this cannot be the plant mentioned by Milton— 
“ The chewing flocks 
Had ta’en their supper on the savoury herb 
Of Knot-grass dew-besprent.”— Comns. 
In this case it must be one of the pasture Grasses, and may 
be Agrostis stolonifera , as it is said to be in Aubrey’s “Natural- 
History of Wilts ” (Dr. Prior). 
