thought have thresht in swelling sheave,
Cockle for corn, and chaff for barley bare."

The Cockle or Campion is said to do mischief among the Wheat, not only,
as the Poppy and other weeds, by occupying room meant for the better
plant, but because the seed gets mixed with the corn, and then "what
hurt it doth among corne, the spoyle unto bread, as well in colour,
taste, and unwholsomness is better known than desired." So says Gerard,
but I do not know how far modern experience confirms him. It is a pity
the plant has so bad a character, for it is a very handsome weed, with a
fine blue flower, and the seeds are very curious objects under the
microscope, being described as exactly like a hedgehog rolled up.[58:1]

FOOTNOTES:

[57:1] "Cokylle--quaedam aborigo, zazannia."--_Catholicon Anglicum._

[58:1] In Dorsetshire the Cockle is the bur of the Burdock. Barnes'
Glossary of Dorset.

COLOQUINTIDA.

_Iago._

The food that to him now is as luscious as Locusts, shall be
to him shortly as bitter as Coloquintida.

_Othello_, act i, sc. 3 (354).

The Coloquintida, or Colocynth, is the dried fleshy part of the fruit of
the Cucumis or Citrullus colocynthis. As a drug it was imported in
Shakespeare's time and long before, but he may also have known the
plant. Gerard seems to have grown it, though from his describing it as a
native of the sandy shores of the Mediterranean, he perhaps confused it
with the Squirting Cucumber (_Momordica elaterium_). It is a native of
Turkey, but has been found also in Japan. It is also found in the East,
and we read of it in the history of Elisha: "One went out into the field
to gather herbs, and found a wild Vine, and gathered thereof wild
Gourds, his lap full."[59:1] It is not quite certain what species of
Gourd is here meant, but all the old commentators considered it to be
the Colocynth,[59:2] the word "vine" meaning any climbing plant, a
meaning that is still in common use in America.

All the tribe of Cucumbers are handsome foliaged plants, but they
require room. On the Continent they are much more frequently grown in
gardens than in England, but the hardy perennial Cucumber (_Cucumis
perennis_) makes a very handsome carpet where the space can be spared,
and the Squirting Cucumber (also hardy and perennial) is worth growing
for its curious fruit. (_See also_ PUMPION.)

FOOTNOTES:

[59:1] 2 Kings iv. 39.

[59: