Part 14 (1/2)

(5) _Burgundy._

And nothing teems But hateful Docks, rough Thistles, Kecksies, Burs.

_Henry V_, act v, sc. 2 (51).

(6) _Cordelia._

Crown'd with rank Fumiter and Furrow-weeds, With Burdocks, Hemlock, Nettles, Cuckoo-flowers.

_King Lear_, act iv, sc. 4 (3).

The Burs are the unopened flowers of the Burdock (_Arctium lappa_), and their clinging quality very early obtained for them expressive names, such as _amor folia_, love leaves, and philantropium. This clinging quality arises from the bracts of the involucrum being long and stiff, and with hooked tips which attach themselves to every pa.s.sing object.

The Burdock is a very handsome plant when seen in its native habitat by the side of a brook, its broad leaves being most picturesque, but it is not a plant to introduce into a garden.[44:1] There is another tribe of plants, however, which are sufficiently ornamental to merit a place in the garden, and whose Burs are even more clinging than those of the Burdock. These are the Acaenas; they are mostly natives of America and New Zealand, and some of them (especially A. sarmentosa and A.

microphylla) form excellent carpet plants, but their points being furnished with double hooks, like a double-barbed arrow, they have double powers of clinging.

BURNET.

_Burgundy._

The even mead, that erst brought sweetly forth The freckled Cowslip, Burnet, and green Clover.

_Henry V._ act v, sc. 2 (48).

The Burnet (_Poterium sanguisorba_) is a native plant of no great beauty or horticultural interest, but it was valued as a good salad plant, the leaves tasting of Cuc.u.mber, and Lord Bacon (contemporary with Shakespeare) seems to have been especially fond of it. He says (”Essay of Gardens”):

”Those flowers which perfume the air most delightfully, not pa.s.sed by as the rest, but being trodden upon and crushed, are three--that is, Burnet, Wild Thyme, and Water Mints; therefore you are to set whole alleys of them, to have the pleasure when you walk or tread.” Drayton had the same affection for it--

”The Burnet shall bear up with this, Whose leaf I greatly fancy.”

_Nymphal V._

It also was, and still is, valued as a forage plant that will grow and keep fresh all the winter in dry barren pastures, thus often giving food for sheep when other food was scarce. It has occasionally been cultivated, but the result has not been very satisfactory, except on very poor land, though, according to the Woburn experiments, as reported by Sinclair, it contains a larger amount of nutritive matter in the spring than most of the Gra.s.ses. It has brown flowers, from which it is supposed to derive its name (Brunetto).[45:1]

FOOTNOTES:

[44:1]

”A Clote-leef he had under his hood For swoot, and to keep his heed from hete.”

CHAUCER, _Prologue of the Chanounes Yeman_ (25).