SHAKESPEARE’S GARDEN 
33 
is not, as Ellacombe says, the hemlock, but the 
chervil, which is still called keck in the Warwickshire 
villages. The name is applied to the living plant, and 
not to the dead stems, although this may once have 
been the case. The book-name for the plants, since 
two are common wild, is “beaked parsley ’’ ( Anthriscus 
vulgaris, Pers., A. sylvestris, Hoffm., and the garden 
escape, A. cerefolium, Hoffm.). They are all natives of 
Arctic Europe, and the first-named was once culti¬ 
vated as a pot-herb. The plant is but once referred 
to by the poet, and that in company with those 
plants usually found with it—docks, thistles and 
burs ( Henry V., V. ii. 52). Ellacombe quotes two 
passages from early authors showing the use of “ kex ” 
for dead stems, but Shakespeare certainly refers to a 
living plant, not a dead one. 
We have now to consider the mysterious flowers 
which formed the wreath of the unhappy Ophelia : 
There with fantastic garlands did she come 
Of crow-flowers, nettles, daisies, and long purples. 
Hamlet , IV. vii. 169. 
Before advancing any new opinion, let us see what 
the authorities have to tell us. Grindon gives them 
as equivalent to the harebell, archangel, daisy, 
and purple orchis, quoting for the first Turner’s 
“ Herball ” of 1551, wherein crow toes, crow fote and 
crow tees are synonyms for Scilla nutans; for the 
second no reason is assigned except that Ophelia 
would admire them; for the last he argues the case 
fully proven for Orchis mascula, “ dead men’s fingers,” 
as the name given from its palmate root. It is much 
to be doubted if anyone in Shakespeare’s age would 
have noticed either the orchis or its root, in spite of 
Dr. ilightfoot and the commentators. Ellacombe is 
inclined towards ragged-robin as the crow-flower, on 
the strength of Gerard’s remark that they serve 
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