PLANT-LORE OF SHAKESPEARE 
295 
and thrust it into my nose, and make my nose bleed ; ” but a- 
straw was never called Speargrass. Asparagus was called 
Speerage, and the young shoots might have been used for the 
purpose, but I have never heard of such a use; Ranunculus 
flammula was called Spearwort, from its lanceolate leaves, and 
so (according to Cockayne) was Carex acuta , still called Spies- 
grass in German. Mr. Beisly suggests the Yarrow or Millfoil; 
and we know from several authorities (Lyte, Hollybush, Gerard, 
Phillip, Cole, Skinner, and Lindley) that the Yarrow was 
called Nosebleed; but there seems no reason to suppose that 
it was ever called Speargrass, or could have been called a 
Grass at all, though the term Grass was often used in the most 
general way. Dr. Prior suggests the Common Reed, which 
is probable. I have been rather inclined to suppose it to 
be one of the Horse-tails (Equiseta). 1 They are very sharp 
and spearlike, and their rough surfaces would soon draw 
blood; and as a docoction of Horse-tail was a remedy for 
stopping bleeding of the nose, I have thought it very probable 
that such a supposed virtue could only have arisen when 
remedies were sought for on the principle of “ similia similibus 
curantur; ” so that a plant, which in one form produced nose¬ 
bleeding, would, when otherwise administered, be the natural 
remedy. But I now think that all these suggested plants must 
give way in favour of the common Couch-grass (Triticum 
repens ). In the eastern counties, this is still called Speargrass ; 
and the sharp underground stolons might easily draw blood, 
when the nose is tickled with them. The old emigrants from 
the eastern counties took the name with them to America, but 
applied it to a Poa (Webster’s “ Dictionary,” s.v. Speargrass). 
Sqnasb, see peas. 
1 “ Hippurus Anglice dicitur sharynge gyrs.”—T urner’s Lihellus , 
1538- 
