[73:1] This account of the Daffodil, and the accounts of some other flowers, I have taken from a paper by myself on the common English names of plants read to the Bath Field Club in 1870, and published in the "Transactions" of the Club, and afterwards privately printed.--H. N. E.
"Herbe orijam and Thyme and Violette Eke Affodyle and savery thereby sette."
_Palladius on Husbandrie_, book i, 1014. (E. E. Text Soc.)
[74:1] "The cup in the centre of the flower is supposed to contain the tears of Narcissus, to which Milton alludes; . . . and Virgil in the following--
'Pars intra septa domorum Narcissi lacrymas . . . ponunt.'"--_Flora Domestica_, 268.
[76:1] The "Quarterly Review," quoting this description, says that "few poets ever lived who could have written a description so simple and original, so vivid and descriptive." Yet it is an unconscious imitation of Homer's account of the Narcissus--
"νάρκισσόν θ' . . . θαυμαστὸν γανόωντα; σέβας δέ τε πᾶσιν ἰδέσθαι ἀθανάτοις τε θεοῖς ἠδὲ θνητοῖς ἀνθρώποις; τοῦ καὶ ἀπὸ ῥίζης ἑκατὸν κάρα ἐξεπεφύκει; κηώδει τ' ὀδμῆ πᾶς τ' οὐρανὸς εὐρὺς ὕπερθεν, γαῖά τε πᾶσ' ἐγέλασσε, καὶ ἁλμυρὸν οἶδμα θαλάσσης."
_Love's Labour's Lost_, act v, sc. 2 (904). (_See_ CUCKOO-BUDS.)
Let us Find out the prettiest Daisied plot we can, And make him with our pikes and partizans A grave.
There with fantastic garlands did she come Of Crow-flowers, Nettles, Daisies, and Long Purples.
Without the bed her other faire hand was On the green coverlet; whose perfect white Show'd like an April Daisy on the Grass.
Darnel, and all the idle weeds that grow In our sustaining Corn.
_King Lear_, act iv, sc. 4 (5). (_See_ CUCKOO-FLOWERS.)
Her fallow leas, The Darnel, Hemlock, and rank Fumitory Doth root upon.
Good morrow, Gallants! want ye Corn for bread? I think the Duke of Burgundy will fast, Before he'll buy again at such a rate; 'Twas full of Darnel; do you like the taste?
"Grandia sæpe quibus mandavimus hordea solcis Infelix lolium et steriles dominantur avenæ."
"Sometimes there sproutes abundant store Of baggage, noisome weeds, Burres, Brembles, Darnel, Cockle, Dawke, Wild Oates, and choaking seedes."
And the same is repeated in the first Georgic, and in both places _lolium_ is always translated Darnel, and so by common consent Darnel is identified with the Lolium temulentum or wild Rye Grass. But in Shakespeare's time Darnel, like Cockle (which see), was the general name for any hurtful weed. In the old translation of the Bible, the Zizania, which is now translated Tares, was sometime translated Cockle,[78:1] and Newton, writing in Shakespeare's time, says--"Under the name of Cockle and Darnel is comprehended all vicious, noisom and unprofitable graine, encombring and hindring good corne."--_Herball to the Bible._ The Darnel is not only injurious from choking the corn, but its seeds become mixed with the true Wheat, and so in Dorsetshire--and perhaps in other parts--it has the name of "Cheat" (Barnes' Glossary), from its false likeness to Wheat. It was this false likeness that got for it its bad character. "Darnell or Juray," says Lyte ("Herball," 1578), "is a vitious graine that combereth or anoyeth corne, especially Wheat, and in his knotten straw, blades, or leaves is like unto Wheate." Yet Lindley says that "the noxious qualities of Darnel or Lolium temulentum seem to rest upon no certain proof" ("Vegetable Kingdom," p. 116).
