HE plants named in this play are Honeysuckle (Lonicera Periclymenum), Holy Thistle (Carduus benedictus).

Act iii. Scene 1. Hero, Margaret, and Ursula.

Hero. Good Margaret, run thee to the parlour;
There shalt thou find my cousin Beatrice
Proposing with the prince and Claudio:
Whisper her ear, and tell her, I and Ursula
Walk in the orchard, and our whole discourse
Is all of her; say that thou overheard'st us;
And bid her steal into the pleached bower,
Where boneysuckles, ripen'd by the sun,
Forbid the sun to enter,-like favourites,
Made proud by princes, that advance their pride
Against that power that bred it :-

Ursula (to Hero). The pleasant'st angling is to see the fish

Cut with her golden oars the silver stream,

And greedily devour the treacherous bait;
So angle we for Beatrice, who even now
Is couched in the woodbine coverture.

* First printed in 1600. 4to.

The honeysuckle is also noticed in the Midsummer Night's Dream, Act iv. Scene 1, where Bottom says:

I have an exposition of sleep come upon me.

and the Queen replies :—

Sleep thou, and I will wind thee in my arms:
Fairies begone, and be always away.

So doth the woodbine, the sweet honeysuckle,
Gently entwist, the female ivy so

Enrings the barky fingers of the elm.

Oh how I love thee! how I doat on thee.

Honeysuckle, or woodbine, or woodbind (Lonicera Periclymenum), grows in woods and hedges; flowers from June to September. It is a climbing plant, with pale yellow, or red and white blossoms, very fragrant. This is the true woodbine of the poet's, and so called from its twisting or binding round the branches of trees and shrubs.

The name woodbine' denotes its character as a climbing plant; 'honeysuckle' the property of the flower, which contains a sweet juice.

The comparison made by the queen is strikingly beautiful. This flower, in Shakspere's time, was regarded as an emblem of fidelity. The plant grows so close round the stems of other plants as to leave deep marks upon them.

Act iii. Scene 4 :—

Beatrice. By my troth I am sick.

Margaret. Get you some of this distilled carduus benedictus, and lay it to your heart; it is the only thing for a qualm.

Hero. There thou prick'st her with a thistle.

Beatrice. Benedictus! Why, Benedictus? you have some moral in this, Benedictus.

Margaret. Moral? No, by my troth I have no moral meaning; I meant plain Holy thistle; you may think, perchance, that I think you are in love.

Holy thistle (Carduus benedictus). Sylibum Marianum.

This is the blessed thistle, the Carduus benedictus of the early writers. The calyx or involucre is spiny. The blessed thistle is a native of the Levant. Gerarde gives an account of its cultivation in England in the year 1597, and says, 'it is commonly called by the Latin name, Carduus benedictus.' It obtained the name benedictus' from the extraordinary virtues attributed to it in the middle ages in curing the plague and other febrile malignant disorders, also in strengthening the stomach. the stomach. An infusion of the leaves in small doses was used formerly to prevent sickness.

Cogan, in his ' Haven of Health,' date 1 586, after noticing the distilled water of Carduus benedictus, says, "This herb may worthily be called benedictus or Omnimorbia, that is a salve for every sore not known

to physicians of old time, but lately revealed by the special providence of Almighty God.'

Hylls, in his Profitable Art of Gardening,' date 1568, says, The blessed thistel is of great use in medicine, and hath a special efficacy against poysons and plague and diseases of the heart. It sharpeneth both the wit and memory and putteth away giddiness.'

Parkinson, in his 'Kitchen Garden,' says,' Carduus benedictus, or the blessed thistle, is much used in the time of any infection or plague, as also to expel any evil symptome from the heart at all other times.'

No herb will cure love.→→

Proverb.

In 'The whole Art and Trade of Husbandry,' enlarged by Barnaby Googe, Esq., printed in 1614, is the following:

Next unto Angelica I have growing in great plenty Carduus benedictus, or blessed thistle, which the empirickes, or common proalisers do commend for sundry and great vertues, affirming that it was first sent out of India to Fredericke the Emperor, for the great vertue it had against the head ache or megrime, being eaten or drunken; likewise it helpeth against the dazing or giddinesse of the head, maketh a good memorie and restoreth the hearing.

For the proofe of his great force agaynst poyson, they bring forth a younge maiden of Pauy,

that having unawares eaten of a poysoned apple, and therewithall so swollen, as no medicine or treacle could cure her, was at the last restored to health by the distilled water of this thistle; and likewise that a boy, into whose mouth, as he slept in the field, happened an adder to crepe, was saved by the drinking of this water. In fine, they affirme that the leaves, juice, seede, and water healeth all kinde of poysons.**

Thomas Fuller, in his 'Holy and Profane State,' says, 'That even holy thistle and briars have their prickles.' Chap. xii.

Alexander Irvine, in his excellent and useful illustrated Handbook of British Plants,' (1858), describes the Carduus benedictus, and adds, "That it is found usually in the vicinity of human dwellings, and appears to accompany man in all his migrations.'

* This book is mostly a translation of a work written by Conrad Heiresbach, a German, about the year 1573.