| (1) | Celia. | They are but Burs, cousin, thrown upon thee in holiday foolery; if we walk not in the trodden paths our very petticoats will catch them. | | Rosalind. | I could shake them off my coat; these Burs are in my heart. | | As You Like It, act i, sc. 3 (13). | | | (2) | Lucio. | Nay, friar, I am a kind of Bur; I shall stick. | | Measure for Measure, act iv, sc. 3 (149). | | | (3) | Lysander. | Hang oft, thou cat, thou Burr. | | Midsummer Night's Dream, act iii, sc. 2 (260). | | | (4) | Pandarus. | They are Burs, I can tell you; they'll stick where they are thrown. | | Troilus and Cressida, act iii, sc. 2 (118). | | | (5) | Burgundy. | And nothing teems
But hateful Docks, rough Thistles, Kecksies, Burs. | | Henry V, act v, sc. 2 (51). | | | (6) | Cordelia. | Crown'd with rank Fumiter and Furrow-weeds,
With Burdocks, Hemlock, Nettles, Cuckoo-flowers. | | King Lear, act iv, sc. 4 (3). | The Burs are the unopened flowers of the Burdock (Arctium lappa), and their clinging quality very early obtained for them expressive names, such as amor folia, love leaves, and philantropium. This clinging quality arises from the bracts of the involucrum being long and stiff, and with hooked tips which attach themselves to every passing object. The Burdock is a very handsome plant when seen in its native habitat by the side of a brook, its broad leaves being most picturesque, but it is not a plant to introduce into a garden.[44:1] There is another tribe of plants, however, which are sufficiently ornamental to merit a place in the garden, and whose Burs are even more clinging than those of the Burdock. These are the AcÆnas; 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.
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