plant, but in modern practice it is but little used, although acknowledged to be of great value in some of the most obstinate diseases of the human body; but as its volatile and acrimonious particles are nearly lost when the plant is in a dry state, we must not be surprised that it should be discarded from the shops. Mr. J. A. Waller tells us, in his British Domestic Herbal, that a few years back he witnessed a most alarming case of dropsy, accompanied with every sign of an exhausted constitution, treated by a prescription of Sydenham, of which the Arum and Angelica formed the most prominent articles. The success of this treatment was most astonishing, for all the symptoms of the most alarming general dropsy disappeared in less than three weeks. Ettmuller extols the fresh-prepared root as a most excellent stomachic in cases of extreme prostration of appetite. He recommends the root to be cut into very small pieces, and taken in brandy. But we must leave the physicians for the notice of the poets, who have made the Arum the emblem of ardour.

Mrs. Frances Arabella Rowden thus cautions children against the berries of the Arum :

Oh! wander not where Dragon Arum showers
Her baleful dews, and twines her purple flowers,
Lest round thy neck she throw her snaring arms,
Sap thy life's blood, and riot on thy charms,

Her shining berry, as the ruby bright,

Might please thy taste, and tempt thy eager sight:
Trust not this specious veil; beneath its guise,
In honied streams a fatal poison lies.

So Vice allures with Virtue's pleasing song,
And charms her victims with a siren's tongue.

CARDAMINE. Nasturtium Pratense.

CUCKOO FLOWER, OR LADY'S SMOCK.

Natural Order Siliquosæ, or Cruciferæ. A Genus of the Tetradynamia Siliquosa Class.

When Daisies pied, and Violets blue,
And Lady's Smocks all silver white,

And Cuckoo-buds of yellow hue,

Do paint the meadows with delight.

SHAKSPEARE.

THAT our great dramatic poet should thus describe one of the most delicate and beautiful of our native plants, shows what charms vegetable beauties had for his capacious mind. The happy expression "silver white," exactly describes the tint of these flowers, some of which are nearly of a pure white colour, whilst others have that purple cast so peculiar to highly-polished silver. As this plant flowers in April, and is in full beauty in the month of May, it generally forms a conspicuous figure in the May-day garlands of the children of our peasantry, which Walton thus notices in his Angler:-" See here a boy gathering Lilies and Lady-Smocks, and there a girl cropping Culverkeys and Cowslips, all to make garlands."

This plant, which is a species of Cress, has been named Cardamine, from its having the taste of Cardamom. It has also been called in Latin Flos Cuculi, because, says Gerard, "it flowers when the cuckowe doth begin to sing her pleasant notes without stammering," and from hence it is called Cuckoo Flower. Shakspeare's Cuckoo Bud is thought to be the Wild Yellow Ranunculus; he mentions the Cuckoo Flower as one of those that formed the crown of the wretched Lear.

He was met even now

As mad as the vex'd sea: singing aloud;

Crown'd with rank Fumiter, and Furrow Weeds,
With Harlocks, Hemlock, Nettles, Cuckoo Flowers,
Darnel, and all the idle weeds that grow

In our sustaining corn.

King Lear.

Gerard tells us that he writes it "Ladie Smocks," because it was so called in Cheshire, his native county; and the unfortunate Chatterton, in his admirable imitation of the older poets, gives it the

same name.

So have I seen a Ladie-Smock soe white,

Blown in the mornynge, and mowd down at night.
Battle of Hastings.

We do not find that this flower has been placed in floral language; and we shall, therefore, taking it from the brow of King Lear, present it as an emblem of paternal error, since this historic drama

so forcibly paints the folly of a parent's making himself dependent on the liberality of his children.

The Cuckoo flower grows spontaneously in most of our moist pasture lands, and is a most ornamental plant when sown in clumps in the damp parts of wilderness scenery, or on the banks of brooks or lakes. In its double state it is deserving a place in the choicest flower-garden; and we particularly recommend clumps of it in the foreground of small shrubberies, as it contrasts as well with the foliage of evergreen shrubs as with the grass of the lawn. This variety is propagated by parting the roots in autumn, at which time they should always be transplanted, and a moist and partially shady situation is most congenial to the nature of the plant.

The leaves of the Cardamine Pratense are frequently eaten in the spring by country people, and have nearly the same anti-scorbutic qualities as the common Water-Cress: it is said to give tone to the stomach and digestive organs. In northern countries, where salt-fish and meats are much eaten, they pound the whole plant, and express the juice, of which they give a wine-glass full for a dose; and it is esteemed an excellent remedy in scorbutic diseases and obstructions of the liver, and the jaundice.