44 
SHAKESPEARE’S GARDEN 
peculiarly liable to reduplication of its floral parts. 
The white form is a cornfield plant, but in a lesser 
degree than the cockle, a plant which is twice 
referred to by the poet. Thus, 
Sowed cockle, reaped no corn. 
Love's Labour's Lost, IV. iii. 383. 
We nourish against our senate 
The cockle of rebellion, insolence, sedition. 
Coriolanus, III. i. 69. 
The weed in question is another species of the 
genus we have just been considering, namely, L. 
githago, Scop., and in places becomes a serious 
nuisance. It is not considered a genuine native, but 
a colonist only. It reaches throughout Europe to 
Persia, and may at once be distinguished by its 
peculiar purple flower, set in a calyx whose woolly 
sepals far exceed the petals. It is a close ally to a 
garden plant of more interest—the ancient campion 
of Apollo,* twined in the chaplets of the victors in 
the Corinthian games. Grindon quotes Drayton as 
an authority for calling the cockle “ the crimson 
darnel flower,” and says there was considerable con¬ 
fusion in the nomenclature of the cornfield weeds, 
more than one species being considered under the 
name of cockle. 
We must now pass from the cornfield to the river¬ 
side, and admire the gorgeous gold of the yellow 
flags drifting down the flooded waters or fast 
anchored at the bankside. The one expression may 
be merely generic, and refer to any flat-leaved river 
plant, but “ flag ” is a good old name applied to one 
of our most beautiful natives, viz., the Iris pseudo- 
acorus, L., which, together with the woodland plant 
/. fcetidissirna, L., whose scarlet berries are prized as 
a winter decoration, are our only indigenous members 
* Lychnis coronaria, L. 
