When daisies pied and violets blue, And lady-smocks all silver white, And cuckoo buds of yellow hue, Do paint the meadows with delight, The cuckoo then, on every tree, Mocks married men, for thus sings he: Cuckoo, Cuckoo, Cuckoo--or word of fear, Unpleasing to a married ear. [43] Act V, Scene II. CUCKOO BUDS (_Ranunculus_). It is quite possible that in "cuckoo buds of yellow hue" Shakespeare meant the blossoms of the buttercup or kingcup (called by the country people of Warwickshire horse-blobs). Some authorities claim that cuckoo-buds is intended to represent the lesser celandine, of which Wordsworth was so fond that he wrote three poems to it. Others call cuckoo-buds _carmine pratensis_; but that could hardly be possible because Shakespeare speaks of "lady-smocks all silver white" in one line and "cuckoo buds of yellow hue" in the succeeding line. There is much confusion in the identification of lady-smocks, cuckoo-buds, cuckoo-flowers, and crow-flowers, for they are more or less related. Gerard says: "Our Lady-Smock is also called the cuckoo-flower because it flowers in April and May when the cuckoo doth begin to sing her pleasant notes without stammering." V _Anemones and "Azured Harebells"_ ANEMONE (_Anemone purpurea striata stellata_). The anemone is described in "Venus and Adonis" very minutely:[44] By this, the boy that by her side lay kill'd, Was melted like a vapor from her sight, And in his blood that on the ground lay spill'd, A purple flower sprung up chequer'd with white. Resembling well his pale cheeks, and the blood, Which in round drops upon their whiteness stood. [44] Verse 195. Adonis, the beautiful youth, beloved of Venus, was wounded by a boar, to which he had given chase. Venus found him as he lay dying on the grass. To make him immortal she changed him into an anemone, or windflower. Naturally the flower was dedicated to Venus. Bion sang: Alas! the Paphian! fair Adonis slain! Tears plenteous as his blood she pours amain, But gentle flowers are born and bloom around From every drop that falls upon the ground. Where streams his blood, there blushing springs a Rose And where a tear has dropped a windflower blows. Pliny asserted the anemone only blooms when the wind blows. The flower was associated with illness in the days of the Egyptians and also during the Middle Ages, when there was also a superstition that the first anemone gathered would prove a charm against disease. The first spring blossom was, therefore, eagerly searched for, delightedly plucked, and carefully guarded. No token of affection was more prized by a loved one going off on a journey than the gift of an anemone. An old ballad has the lines: The first Spring-blown Anemone she in his doublet wove, To keep him safe from pestilence wherever he should rove.