indicate neglect in husbandry. The Rumex obtusifolius, or broad-leaved dock, is one of the most common of the dock tribe, and the Carduus arvensis is one of the most common thistles. They are truly called 'Hateful docks and rough thistles,' as the docks strike their roots deep into the earth and have numerous seeds which distribute freely and produce abundantly. The thistle also seeds prolificly, and is very troublesome to the husbandman, as the winds scatter them far and wide over the land. Kecksies.

The dried withered stems of the hemlock (Conium maculatum), and other umbelliferous plants, are called kecksies. Gerarde and Bulleyn call the stem of hemlock a kex.

a proverb 'light as a kex.'

There is

Burs, the burdock, see Measure for Measure.

battle :

HE Hawthorn (Crataegus Oxyacantha) is named in this play.

In Act ii. Scene 5, a part of the field of

King Henry. This battle fares like to the morning's war,
When dying clouds contend with growing light;
What time the shepherd, blowing of his nails,
Can neither call it perfect day nor night

Now sways it this way, like a mighty sea,
Forc'd by the tide to combat with the wind;

Now sways it that way, like the self-same sea
Forc'd to retire by fury of the wind:

Sometime, the flood prevails; and then the wind;
Now, one the better; then, another best;
Both tugging to be victors, breast to breast,
Yet neither conqueror, nor conquered:
So is the equal poise of this fell war.

Here on this mole-hill will I sit me down.
To whom God will, there be the victory!
For Margaret my queen, and Clifford too,

* First printed in the folio of 1623.

Have chid me from the battle; swearing both
They prosper best of all when I am thence.
Would I were dead! if God's good will were so ;
For what is in this world but grief and woe?
O God! methinks it were a happy life,
To be no better than a homely swain :
To sit upon a hill, as I do now,

To carve out dials quaintly, point by point,
Thereby to see the minutes how they run :
How many make the hour full complete,
How many hours bring about the day,
How many days will finish up the year,
How many years a mortal man may live.
When this is known, then to divide the times:
So many hours must I tend my flock;

So many hours must I take my rest;
hours must I contemplate;

So

many

So many hours must I sport myself;

So many days my ewes have been with young;
So many weeks ere the fools will yean;

poor

So many years ere I shall shear the fleece;
So minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, and years,
Past over to the end they were created,

Would bring white hairs unto a quiet grave.

Ah, what a life were this! how sweet! how lovely!
Gives not the Hawthorn bush a sweeter shade

To shepherds, looking on their stilly sheep,
Than doth a rich embroider'd canopy,
To king's, that fear their subjects' treachery?
O, yes it doth; a thousand-fold it doth.
And to conclude, the shepherd's homely curds,
His cold thin drink out of his leather bottle,
His wonted sleep under a fresh tree's shade,
All which secure and sweetly he enjoys,
Is far beyond a prince's delicates,

His viands sparkling in a golden cup,

His body couched in a curious bed

When care, mistrust, and treason wait on him.

Hawthorn (Crataegus Oxyacantha). The Whitethorn, or May, as it is often called, grows in hedges, on commons, and in parks, affording, by its thick foliage, sweet shade, as truly described by the poet. It is a favourite tree with shepherds, who commonly seek it for shade from the heat and for shelter in the storm. Milton, in 'L'Allegro,' says:—

And every shepherd tells his tale

Under the hawthorn, in the dale.

In the Merry Wives of Windsor, Act iii. Scene 3, Falstaff, speaking to Mrs. Ford, says :—

Come I cannot cog, and say thou art this and that, like a many of these lisping hawthorn buds that come like women in men's apparel, and smell like Bucklersbury in simple time.

HE Onion (Allium Cepa) and Mandragora (Atropa Mandragora) are named in this play.

In Act i. Scene 2 :

Antony. Fulvia is dead.

Enobarbus. Sir?

Antony. Fulvia is dead.

Enobarbus. Fulvia?
Antony. Dead.

Eno. Why, sir, give the gods a thankful sacrifice. When it pleaseth their deities to take the wife of a man from him, it shows to man the tailors of the earth; comforting therein, that when old robes are worn out there are members to make new. If there were no more women but Fulvia, then had you indeed a cut, and the case to be lamented; this grief is crowned with consolation; your old smock brings forth a new petticoat: and indeed the tears live in an onion that should water this sorrow.

And in Act iv. Scene 2, Enobarbus says to Antony:

* First printed in the folio of 1623.