Part 19 (1/2)

[57:1] ”c.o.kylle--quaedam aborigo, zazannia.”--_Catholicon Anglic.u.m._

[58:1] In Dorsets.h.i.+re the c.o.c.kle is the bur of the Burdock. Barnes'

Glossary of Dorset.

COLOQUINTIDA.

_Iago._

The food that to him now is as luscious as Locusts, shall be to him shortly as bitter as Coloquintida.

_Oth.e.l.lo_, act i, sc. 3 (354).

The Coloquintida, or Colocynth, is the dried fleshy part of the fruit of the Cuc.u.mis or Citrullus colocynthis. As a drug it was imported in Shakespeare's time and long before, but he may also have known the plant. Gerard seems to have grown it, though from his describing it as a native of the sandy sh.o.r.es of the Mediterranean, he perhaps confused it with the Squirting Cuc.u.mber (_Momordica elaterium_). It is a native of Turkey, but has been found also in j.a.pan. It is also found in the East, and we read of it in the history of Elisha: ”One went out into the field to gather herbs, and found a wild Vine, and gathered thereof wild Gourds, his lap full.”[59:1] It is not quite certain what species of Gourd is here meant, but all the old commentators considered it to be the Colocynth,[59:2] the word ”vine” meaning any climbing plant, a meaning that is still in common use in America.

All the tribe of Cuc.u.mbers are handsome foliaged plants, but they require room. On the Continent they are much more frequently grown in gardens than in England, but the hardy perennial Cuc.u.mber (_Cuc.u.mis perennis_) makes a very handsome carpet where the s.p.a.ce can be spared, and the Squirting Cuc.u.mber (also hardy and perennial) is worth growing for its curious fruit. (_See also_ PUMPION.)

FOOTNOTES:

[59:1] 2 Kings iv. 39.

[59:2] ”Invenitque quasi vitem sylvestrem, et collegit ex ea Colocynthidas agri.”--_Vulgate._

COLUMBINE.

(1) _Armado._

I am that flower,

_Dumain._

That Mint.

_Longaville._

That Columbine.

_Love's Labour's Lost_, act v, sc. 2 (661).

(2) _Ophelia._

There's Fennel for you and Columbines.

_Hamlet_, act iv, sc. 5 (189).