Researching the plants mentioned in Lear’s “crown of weeds” proved not only fascinatingly insightful (more of that later) but shone light on the wonderful names countryfolk once gave plants: beggar’s buttons, ladies’ smocks, milkmaids, fairy flower, bedlam* cowslip, key of heaven, bee-nettle, skullcap, enchanter’s nightshade, beggary, hedge fumitory, sticklebacks and ragged robin (*bedlam – Bethlehem hospital, built for the “insane” in 1247).