SHAKESPEARE’S GARDEN 
13 
These weeds are all coarse and hardy denizens of 
badly-tilled cornfields, as well as of their boundary 
wastes. There is no doubt that the weed is that 
still called cuckoo - flower in the county, namely, 
the two commonest of the wild geraniums (Geranium 
dissectum , L., and G. molle , L.). It does not usually 
flower until May, but in sheltered spots it blossoms 
earlier. We have in all eleven wild geraniums, some 
of which are truly handsome plants, and not unknown 
in our gardens. The two mentioned are found 
throughout Europe, and in Western Asia and Northern 
Africa also. One of the wild geraniums, herb 
Robert, was a very popular plant among the herbalists. 
There have been many suggestions as to what plant 
Shakespeare meant by cuckoo-flower. Ellacombe 
suggests that cuckoo-flower and cuckoo-bud are 
identical, and quotes (p. 67) Mr. Swinfen Jervis as 
identifying the flower with the cowslip. Grindon 
suggests the corn bluebottle (Centaurea cyanus , L.), 
on account of a local name of cuckoo-wood still 
used in some localities; but, after all, the use of the 
name for members of the Geraniaceee in the neigh¬ 
bourhood of Stratford would seem to settle the 
question. With regard to “ cuckoo-buds/’ the plants 
they are classed with grow in part in damp meadows, 
in part in the sheltered dingles adjoining. The 
lady-smocks would also grow near the water, and 
surely the most conspicuous flower by its banks would 
be the golden kingcup, the horse-blobs of the 
Warwickshire children. It could surely be as well 
associated with the lady-smock and daisy as the 
violet, and, apart from it, we can but fall back on the 
various species of ranunculus, which truly “ paint 
the meadows with delight,” but are hardly in flower 
with the lady-smock, the only early species. The 
starry celandine ( R. Jicaria) is a plant of copses and 
shady hedgebanks, although found in meadows 
