When shepherd’s pipe on oaten straws,
And maidens bleach their Summer smocks,” &c.
The Cuckoo-buds here alluded to are supposed to be a species of Ranunculus; and, perhaps, as the Cardamine pratensis is rather a pale blue than a silver-white flower, Shakspeare alluded in these lines to C. amara, whose brilliantly-white blossoms might well be taken for linen laid out to bleach. The plant derives its name Cardamine from its taste of Cardamoms. It is also called Meadow Cress. For some reason, if this flower was found introduced into a May-day garland, it was torn to pieces immediately on discovery. Our Lady’s Smock is associated by the Catholics with the Day of the Annunciation.——The Cardamine is a herb of the Moon.
CARDINAL-FLOWER.—Of the extensive Lobelia family the L. Cardinalis, or Cardinal’s Flower, is, perhaps, the most beautiful. Its blossoms are of so brilliant a scarlet, as to have reminded the originator of its name of the scarlet cloth of Rome, while its shape is not altogether dissimilar to the hat of the Romish dignitary. Alphonse Karr, remarking on the vivid hue of the Cardinal’s Flower, says that even the Verbena will pale before it.
CARLINE THISTLE.—The white and red Carline Thistles (Carlina vulgaris) derive their name from Charlemagne, regarding whom the legend relates that once—“a horrible pestilence broke out in his army, and carried off many thousand men, which greatly troubled the pious Emperor. Wherefore, he prayed earnestly to God; and in his sleep there appeared to him an angel, who shot an arrow from the cross-bow, telling him to mark the plant upon which it fell, for that with that plant he might cure his army of the pestilence. And so it really happened.” The plant upon which the arrow alighted was the Carline Thistle, and, as Gerarde tells us, Charlemagne’s army was, through the benefit of the root delivered and preserved from the plague.—The Carline Thistle is under the dominion of Mars.
CARNATION.—The Carnation (Dianthus caryophyllus) is generally supposed to have obtained its name from the flesh-colour of its flowers; but it was more correctly spelt by old writers, Coronation, as representing the Vetonica coronaria of the early herbalists, and so called from its flowers being used in the classic coronæ or chaplets. Thus Spenser, in his ‘Shepherd’s Calendar’ says: “Bring Coronations and Sops-in-wine, worn of paramours.” From Chaucer we learn that the flower was formerly called the Clove Gilliflower, and that it was cultivated in English gardens in Edward the Third’s reign. In those days, it was used to give a spicy flavour to wine and ale, and from hence obtained its name of Sop-in-wine:—
“Her springen herbes, grete and smale,
The Licoris and the Setewales,
And many a Clove Gilofre,
————to put in ale,