SHAKESPEARE'S GARDEN 
61 
And, lastly, the term “ flax-wench ” is applied in 
opprobrium, much as we might use the term “ fish¬ 
wife,” in the Winter s Tale, I. ii. 276; while FalstafF is 
referred to in the Merry Wives, V. v. 159, as 
A hodge pudding, a bag of flax. 
This month we may consider a curious umbel¬ 
liferous plant belonging to a genus ( Carum ) noticed 
in June, the Carum bulbo-castanemn of Koch. It is 
a dainty plant with delicate umbels of white flowers 
and bright green foliage, and is frequent in damp 
meadow-land. Its root is peculiar, long and tapering, 
but terminating in a globose tuber as large as a 
chestnut and black in colour. Hooker states that 
this root is used for pigs. It is eaten in the eastern 
counties by the peasant lads, a custom no doubt 
alluded to in the Tempest, when Caliban says : 
I, with my long nails, will dig thee pig-nuts. 
Tempest, II. ii. 172. 
It is said to be cultivated in some countries for food. 
Burs may be either the seed-vessels of the various 
species of burdock [Arctium) or some of the many 
seeds covered with hooked spines and setae, such as 
those of the goosegrass or hound’s-tongue. Perhaps 
the former are the more likely, especially in King 
Lear, IV. iv. 4, where it is one of the plants in the 
noxious garland already repeatedly referred to. 
Hardocks must mean burdocks.' 55 ' The foliage of 
these plants [Arctium lappa, L.f) is handsome, and 
their habit massive and pleasing; but, nevertheless, 
they are troublesome weeds, and the bracts are 
armed with “ long, stiff, spreading, hooked tips,” 
* The Globe edition reads “ burdocks.” 
t Modern botanists separate the old A . lappa into A . majus , 
Bernh. ; A. nemovosum, Lej. ; A. minus, Bernh.; and A. inter* 
medium, Lange. 
