Of Potions, Poisons, Polygonum and Pre?emptive Polymorphism

There are scores of references to plants and herbs in William Shakespeare's plays; he was obviously very knowledgeable about their perceived effects. The secret to the highly potent love potion Oberon asks Puck to find, lies in the purple, yellow and white flower, ‘love‐in‐idleness’, a folk name for the wild pansy (Viola tricolour). When scientists from Royal Society of Chemistry and Quest International put this to the test 400 years later, they concluded that ‘Wild pansies were noted in herbal folklore medicine