re clinging than those of the
Burdock. These are the Acaenas; they are mostly natives of America and
New Zealand, and some of them (especially A. sarmentosa and A.
microphylla) form excellent carpet plants, but their points being
furnished with double hooks, like a double-barbed arrow, they have
double powers of clinging.

BURNET.

_Burgundy._

The even mead, that erst brought sweetly forth
The freckled Cowslip, Burnet, and green Clover.

_Henry V._ act v, sc. 2 (48).

The Burnet (_Poterium sanguisorba_) is a native plant of no great beauty
or horticultural interest, but it was valued as a good salad plant, the
leaves tasting of Cucumber, and Lord Bacon (contemporary with
Shakespeare) seems to have been especially fond of it. He says ("Essay
of Gardens"):

"Those flowers which perfume the air most delightfully, not passed by
as the rest, but being trodden upon and crushed, are three--that is,
Burnet, Wild Thyme, and Water Mints; therefore you are to set whole
alleys of them, to have the pleasure when you walk or tread." Drayton
had the same affection for it--

"The Burnet shall bear up with this,
Whose leaf I greatly fancy."

_Nymphal V._

It also was, and still is, valued as a forage plant that will grow and
keep fresh all the winter in dry barren pastures, thus often giving food
for sheep when other food was scarce. It has occasionally been
cultivated, but the result has not been very satisfactory, except on
very poor land, though, according to the Woburn experiments, as reported
by Sinclair, it contains a larger amount of nutritive matter in the
spring than most of the Grasses. It has brown flowers, from which it is
supposed to derive its name (Brunetto).[45:1]

FOOTNOTES:

[44:1]

"A Clote-leef he had under his hood
For swoot, and to keep his heed from hete."

CHAUCER, _Prologue of the Chanounes Yeman_ (25).

This Clote leaf is by many considered to be the Burdock leaf, but it was
more probably the name of the Water-lily.

[45:1] "Burnet colowre, Burnetum, burnetus."--_Promptorium Parvulorum._

CABBAGE.

_Evans._

_Pauca verba_, Sir John; good worts.

_Falstaff._

Good worts! good Cabbage.

_Merry Wives_, act i, sc. 1 (123).

The history of the name is rather curious. It comes