A name of some plant.
Shakespeare has been variously supposed to refer to the buttercup, marsh-marigold and cowslip; Clare perhaps meant an Orchis, or the Cuckoo-pint in bud.
1588. Shaks., L. L. L., V. ii. 906. When Dasies pied, and Violets blew, And Cuckow-buds of yellow hew: And Ladie-smockes all siluer white, Do paint the Medowes with delight.
1821. Clare, Vill. Minstr., I. 137. ’Neath the weaving thorn, Where the pouch’d-lipp’d cuckoo-bud From its snug retreat was torn. Ibid., II. 133. Full many a blue-bell flower and cuckoo-bud.
