book xi

., Mulholland's translation). This description will in no way fit the Iris, but it may very well be applied to the White Lily. Chaucer, too, seems to connect the Fleur-de-luce with the Lily--

"Her nekke was white as the Flour de Lis."

These are certainly strong authorities for saying that the Flower-de-luce is the Lily. But there are as strong or stronger on the other side. Spenser separates the Lilies from the Flower-de-luces in his pretty lines--

"Strow mee the grounde with Daffadown-Dillies, And Cowslips, and Kingcups, and lovéd Lillies; The Pretty Pawnce And the Chevisaunce Shall match with the fayre Floure Delice."

_Shepherd's Calendar._

Ben Jonson separates them in the same way--

"Bring rich Carnations, Flower-de-luces, Lillies."

Lord Bacon also separates them: "In April follow the double White Violet, the Wall-flower, the Stock-Gilliflower, the Cowslip, the Flower-de-luces, and Lilies of all Natures;" and so does Drayton--

"The Lily and the Flower de Lis For colours much contenting."

_Nymphal V._

In heraldry also the Fleur-de-lis and the Lily are two distinct bearings. Then, from the time of Turner in 1568, through Gerard and Parkinson to Miller, all the botanical writers identify the Iris as the plant named, and with this judgment most of our modern writers agree.[99:1] We may, therefore, assume that Shakespeare meant the Iris as the flower given by Perdita, and we need not be surprised at his classing it among the Lilies. Botanical classification was not very accurate in his day, and long after his time two such celebrated men as Redouté and De Candolle did not hesitate to include in the "Liliacæ," not only Irises, but Daffodils, Tulips, Fritillaries, and even Orchids.

What Iris Shakespeare especially alluded to it is useless to inquire. We have two in England that are indigenous--one the rich golden-yellow (_I. pseudacorus_), which in some favourable positions, with its roots in the water of a brook, is one of the very handsomest of the tribe; the other the Gladwyn (_I. foetidissima_), with dull flowers and strong-smelling leaves, but with most handsome scarlet fruit, which remain on the plant and show themselves boldly all through the winter and early spring. Of other sorts there is a large number, so that the whole family, according to the latest account by Mr. Baker, of Kew, contains ninety-six distinct species besides varieties. They come from all parts of the world, from the Arctic Circle to the South of China; they are of all colours, from the pure white Iris Florentina to the almost black I. Susiana; and of all sizes, from a few inches to four feet or more. They are mostly easy of cultivation and increase readily, so that there are few plants better suited for the hardy garden or more ornamental.

FOOTNOTES:

[99:1] G. Fletcher's Flower-de-luce was certainly the Iris--

"The Flower-de-Luce and the round specks of dew That hung upon the azure leaves did shew Like twinkling stars that sparkle in the evening blue."

The "leaves" here must be the petals.

FUMITER, FUMITORY.

(1) _Cordelia._

Crown'd with rank Fumiter and Furrow-weeds.

_King Lear_, act iv, sc. 4 (3). (_See_ CUCKOO-FLOWERS.)

(2) _Burgundy._

Her fallow leas The Darnel, Hemlock, and rank Fumitory Doth root upon.

_Henry V_, act v, sc. 2 (44).

Of Fumitories we have five species in England, all of them weeds in cultivated grounds and in hedgerows. None of them can be considered garden plants, but they are closely allied to the Corydalis, of which there are several pretty species, and to the very handsome Dielytras, of which one species--D. spectabilis--ranks among the very handsomest of our hardy herbaceous plants. How the plant acquired its name of Fumitory--_fume-terre_, earth-smoke--is not very satisfactorily explained, though many explanations have been given; but that the name was an ancient one we know from the interesting Stockholm manuscript of the eleventh century published by Mr. J. Pettigrew, and of which a few lines are worth quoting. (The poem is published in the "Archæologia," vol. xxx.)--

"Fumiter is erbe, I say, Yt spryngyth [=i] April et in May, In feld, in town, in yard, et gate, Yer lond is fat and good in state, Dun red is his flour Ye erbe smek lik in colowur."

FURZE.

(1) _Ariel._

So I charm'd their ears, That calf-like they my lowing follow'd through Tooth'd Briers, sharp Furzes, pricking Goss, and Thorns.

_Tempest_, act iv, sc. 1 (178).

(2) _Gonzalo._

Now would I give a thousand furlongs of sea for an acre of barren ground, long Heath, brown Furze, anything.

_Ibid._, act i, sc. 1 (70).

We now call the Ulex Europæus either Gorse, or Furze, or Whin; but in the sixteenth century I think that the Furze and Gorse were distinguished (_see_ GORSE), and that the brown Furze was the Ulex. It is a most beautiful plant, and with its golden blossoms and richly scented flowers is the glory of our wilder hill-sides. It is especially a British plant, for though it is found in other parts of Europe, and even in the Azores and Canaries, yet I believe it is nowhere found in such abundance or in such beauty as in England. Gerard says, "The greatest and highest that I did ever see do grow about Excester, in the West Parts of England;" and those that have seen it in Devonshire will agree with him. It seems to luxuriate in the damp, mild climate of Devonshire, and to see it in full flower as it covers the low hills that abut upon the Channel between Ilfracombe and Clovelly is a sight to be long remembered. It is, indeed, a plant that we may well be proud of. Linnæus could only grow it in a greenhouse, and there is a well-known story of Dillenius that when he first saw the Furze in blossom in England he fell on his knees and thanked God for sparing his life to see so beautiful a part of His creation. The story may be apocryphal, but we have a later testimony from another celebrated traveller who had seen the glories of tropical scenery, and yet was faithful to the beauties of the wild scenery of England. Mr. Wallace bears this testimony: "I have never seen in the tropics such brilliant masses of colour as even England can show in her Furze-clad commons, her glades of Wild Hyacinths, her fields of Poppies, her meadows of Buttercups and Orchises, carpets of yellow, purple, azure blue, and fiery crimson, which the tropics can rarely exhibit. We have smaller masses of colour in our Hawthorns and Crab trees, our Holly and Mountain Ash, our Broom, Foxgloves, Primroses, and purple Vetches, which clothe with gay colours the length and breadth of our land" ("Malayan Archipelago," ii. 296).

As a garden shrub the Furze may be grown either as a single lawn shrub or in the hedge or shrubbery. Everywhere it will be handsome both in its single and double varieties, and as it bears the knife well, it can be kept within limits. The upright Irish form also makes an elegant shrub, but does not flower so freely as the typical plant.

GARLICK.

(1) _Bottom._

And, most clear actors, eat no Onions nor Garlic, for we are to utter sweet breath.

_Midsummer Night's Dream_, act iv, sc. 2 (42).

(2) _Lucio._

He would mouth with a beggar, though she smelt brown bread and Garlic.

_Measure for Measure_, act iii, sc. 2 (193).

(3) _Hotspur._

I had rather live With cheese and Garlic in a windmill.

_1st Henry IV_, act iii, sc. 1 (161).

(4) _Menenius._

You that stood so much Upon the voice of occupation, and The breath of Garlic-eaters.

_Coriolanus_, act iv, sc. 6 (96).

(5) _Dorcas._

Mopsa must be your mistress; marry, Garlic to mend her kissing with.

_Winter's Tale_, act iv, sc. 4 (162).

There is something almost mysterious in the Garlick that it should be so thoroughly acceptable, almost indispensable, to many thousands, while to others it is so horribly offensive as to be unbearable. The Garlick of Egypt was one of the delicacies that the Israelites looked back to with fond regret, and we know from Herodotus that it was the daily food of the Egyptian labourer; yet, in later times, the Mohammedan legend recorded that "when Satan stepped out from the Garden of Eden after the fall of man, Garlick sprung up from the spot where he placed his left foot, and Onions from that which his right foot touched, on which account, perhaps, Mohammed habitually fainted at the sight of either." It was the common food also of the Roman labourer, but Horace could only wonder at the "dura messorum illia" that could digest the plant "cicutis allium nocentius." It was, and is the same with its medical virtues. According to some it was possessed of every virtue,[102:1] so that it had the name of Poor Man's Treacle (the word treacle not having its present meaning, but being the Anglicised form of theriake, or heal-all[103:1]); while, on the other hand, Gerard affirmed "it yieldeth to the body no nourishment at all; it ingendreth naughty and sharpe bloud."

Bullein describes it quaintly: "It is a grosse kinde of medicine, verye unpleasant for fayre Ladies and tender Lilly Rose colloured damsels which often time profereth sweet breathes before gentle wordes, but both would do very well" ("Book of Simples"). Yet if we could only divest it of its evil smell, the wild Wood Garlick would rank among the most beautiful of our British plants. Its wide leaves are very similar to those of the Lily of the Valley, and its starry flowers are of the very purest white. But it defies picking, and where it grows it generally takes full possession, so that I have known several woods--especially on the Cotswold Hills--that are to be avoided when the plant is in flower. The woods are closely carpeted with them, and every step you take brings out their foetid odour. There are many species grown in the gardens, some of which are even very sweet smelling (as A. odorum and A. fragrans); but these are the exceptions, and even these have the Garlick scent in their leaves and roots. Of the rest many are very pretty and worth growing, but they are all more or less tainted with the evil habits of the family.

FOOTNOTES:

[102:1] "You (_i.e._, citizens) are still sending to the apothecaries, and still crying out to 'fetch Master Doctor to me;' but our (_i.e._, countrymen's) apothecary's shop is our garden full of pot herbs, and our doctor is a good clove of Garlic."--_The Great Frost of January, 1608._

[103:1]

"Crist, which that is to every harm triacle."

CHAUCER, _Man of Lawes Tale_.

"Treacle was there anone forthe brought."

_Le Morte Arthur_, 864.

GILLIFLOWERS, _see_ CARNATIONS.

GINGER.

(1) _Clown._

I must have Saffron to colour the Warden pies--Mace--Dates? none, that's out of my note; Nutmegs, seven--a race or two of Ginger, but that I may beg.

_Winter's Tale_, act iv, sc. 3 (48).

(2) _Sir Toby._

Dost thou think, because thou art virtuous, there shall be no more cakes and ale.

_Clown._

Yes, by St. Anne, and Ginger shall be hot i' the mouth too.

_Twelfth Night_, act ii, sc. 3 (123).

(3) _Pompey._

First, here's Young Master Rash, he's in for a commodity of brown paper and old Ginger, nine score and seventeen pounds, of which he made five marks ready money; marry, then, Ginger was not much in request, for the old women were all dead.

_Measure for Measure_, act iv, sc. 3 (4).

(4) _Salanio._

I would she were as lying a gossip in that as ever knapped Ginger.

_Merchant of Venice_, act iii, sc. 1 (9).

(5) _2nd Carrier._

I have a gammon of bacon and two razes of Ginger to be delivered as far as Charing Cross.

_1st Henry IV_, act ii, sc. 1 (26).

(6) _Orleans._

He's of the colour of the Nutmeg.

_Dauphin._

And of the heat of the Ginger.

_Henry V_, act iii, sc. 7 (20).

(7) _Julia._

What is't you took up so Gingerly?

_Two Gentlemen of Verona_, act i, sc. 2 (70).

(8) _Costard._

An I had but one penny in the world, thou should'st have it to buy Ginger-bread.

_Love's Labour's Lost_, act v, sc. 1 (74).

(9) _Hotspur._

Swear me, Kate, like a lady as thou art, A good mouth-filling oath, and leave "in sooth," And such protest of pepper Ginger-bread To velvet-guards and Sunday-citizens.

_1st Henry IV_, act iii, sc. 1 (258).

Ginger was well known both to the Greeks and Romans. It was imported from Arabia, together with its name, Zingiberri, which it has retained, with little variation, in all languages.

When it was first imported into England is not known, but probably by the Romans, for it occurs as a common ingredient in many of the Anglo-Saxon medical recipes. Russell, in the "Boke of Nurture," mentions several kinds of Ginger; as green and white, "colombyne, valadyne, and Maydelyn." In Shakespeare's time it was evidently very common and cheap.

It is produced from the roots of Zingiber officinale, a member of the large and handsome family of the Ginger-worts. The family contains some of the most beautiful of our greenhouse plants, as the Hedychiums, Alpinias, and Mantisias; and, though entirely tropical, most of the species are of easy cultivation in England. Ginger is very easily reared in hotbeds, and I should think it very probable that it may have been so grown in Shakespeare's time. Gerard attempted to grow it, but he naturally failed, by trying to grow it in the open ground as a hardy plant; yet "it sprouted and budded forth greene leaves in my garden in the heate of somer;" and he tells us that plants were sent him by "an honest and expert apothecarie, William Dries, of Antwerp," and "that the same had budded and grown in the said Dries' garden."

GOOSEBERRIES.

_Falstaff._

All the other gifts appertinent to man, as the malice of this age shapes them, are not worth a Gooseberry.

_2nd Henry IV_, act i, sc. 2 (194).

The Gooseberry is probably a native of the North of England, but Turner said (s.v. _uva crispa_) "it groweth onely that I have sene in England, in gardines, but I have sene it in Germany abrode in the fieldes amonge other busshes."

The name has nothing to do with the goose. Dr. Prior has satisfactorily shown that the word is a corruption of "Crossberry." By the writers of Shakespeare's time, and even later, it was called Feaberry (Gerard, Lawson, and others), and in one of the many books on the Plague published in the sixteenth century, the patient is recommended to eat "thepes, or goseberries" ("A Counsell against the Sweate," fol. 23).

GORSE OR GOSS.

_Ariel._

Tooth'd Briers, sharp Furzes, pricking Goss, and Thorns.

_Tempest_, act iv, sc. 1 (180).

In speaking of the Furze (which see), I said that in Shakespeare's time the Furze and Gorse were probably distinguished, though now the two names are applied to the same plant. "In the 15th Henry VI. (1436), license was given to Humfrey, Duke of Gloucester, to inclose 200 acres of land--pasture, wode, hethe, vrises,[106:1] and gorste (_bruere, et jampnorum_), and to form thereof a Park at Greenwich."--_Rot. Parl._ iv. 498.[106:2] This proves that the "Gorst" was different from the "Vrise," and it may very likely have been the Petty Whin. "Pricking Goss," however, may be only a generic term, like Bramble and Brier, for any wild prickly plant.

FOOTNOTES:

[106:1] There is a hill near Lansdown (Bath) now called Frizen or Freezing Hill. Within memory of man it was covered with Gorse. This was probably the origin of the name, "Vrisen Hill."

[106:2] "Promptorium Parvulorum," p. 162, note.

GOURD.

_Pistol._

For Gourd and fullam holds.

_Merry Wives_, act i, sc. 3 (94).

I merely mention this to point out that "Gourd," though probably originally derived from the fruit, is not the fruit here, but is an instrument of gambling. The fruit, however, was well known in Shakespeare's time, and was used as the type of intense greenness--

"Whose coerule stream, rombling in pebble-stone, Crept under Moss, as green as any Gourd."

SPENSER, _Virgil's Gnat_.

GRACE, _see_ RUE.

GRAPES, _see_ VINES.

GRASSES.

(1) _Gonzalo._

How lush and lusty the Grass looks! how green!

_Tempest_, act ii, sc. 1 (52).

(2) _Iris._

Here, on this Grass-plot, in this very place To come and sport.

_Ibid._, act iv, sc. 1 (73).

(3) _Ceres._

Why hath thy Queen Summon'd me hither to this short-grass'd green?

_Ibid._ (82).

(4) _Lysander._

When Phoebe doth behold Her silver visage in the watery glass, Decking with liquid pearl the bladed Grass.

_Midsummer Night's Dream_, act i, sc. 1 (209).

(5) _King._

Say to her, we have measured many miles To tread a measure with her on this Grass.

_Boyet._

They say, that they have measured many miles To tread a measure with her on the Grass.

_Love's Labour's Lost_, act v, sc. 2 (184).

(6) _Clown._

I am no great Nebuchadnezzar, sir, I have not much skill in Grass.

_All's Well that Ends Well_, act iv, sc. 5 (21).

(7) _Luciana._

If thou art changed to aught, 'tis to an ass.

_Dromio of Syracuse._

'Tis true; she rides me, and I long for Grass.

_Comedy of Errors_, act ii, sc. 2 (201).

(8) _Bolingbroke._

Here we march Upon the Grassy carpet of the plain.

_Richard II_, act iii, sc. 3 (49).

(9) _King Richard._

And bedew Her pasture's Grass with faithful English blood.

_Ibid._ (100).

(10) _Ely._

Grew like the summer Grass, fastest by night, Unseen, yet crescive in his faculty.

_Henry V_, act i, sc. 1 (65).

(11) _King Henry._

Mowing like Grass Your fresh-fair virgins and your flowering infants.

_Ibid._, act iii, sc. 3 (13).

(12) _Grandpre._

And in their pale dull mouths the gimmal bit Lies foul with chew'd Grass, still and motionless.

_Henry V_, act iv, sc. 2 (49).

(13) _Suffolk._

Though standing naked on a mountain top Where biting cold would never let Grass grow.

_2nd Henry VI_, act iii, sc. 2 (336).

(14) _Cade._

All the realm shall be in common; and in Cheapside shall my palfrey go to Grass.

_Ibid._, act iv, sc. 2 (74).

(15) _Cade._

Wherefore on a brick wall have I climbed into this garden, to see if I can eat Grass or pick a Sallet another while, which is not amiss to cool a man's stomach this hot weather.

_Ibid._, act iv, sc. 10 (7).

(16) _Cade._

If I do not leave you all as dead as a door-nail, I pray God I may never eat Grass more.

_Ibid._ (42).

(17) _1st Bandit._

We cannot live on Grass, on berries, water, As beasts and birds and fishes.

_Timon of Athens_, act iv, sc. 3 (425).

(18) _Saturninus._

These tidings nip me, and I hang the head As Flowers with frost or Grass beat down with storms.

_Titus Andronicus_, act iv, sc. 4 (70).

(19) _Hamlet._

Ay but, sir, "while the Grass grows"--the proverb is something musty.

_Hamlet_, act iii, sc. 2 (358).

(20) _Ophelia._

He is dead and gone, lady, He is dead and gone; At his head a Grass-green turf, At his heels a stone.

_Ibid._, act iv, sc. 5 (29).

(21) _Salarino._

I should be still Plucking the Grass to know where sits the wind.

_Merchant of Venice_, act i, sc. 1 (17).

In and before Shakespeare's time Grass was used as a general term for all plants. Thus Chaucer--

"And every grass that groweth upon roote Sche schal eek know, to whom it will do boote Al be his woundes never so deep and wyde."

_The Squyeres Tale._

It is used in the same general way in the Bible, "the Grass of the field."

In the whole range of botanical studies the accurate study of the Grasses is, perhaps, the most difficult as the genus is the most extensive, for Grasses are said to "constitute, perhaps, a twelfth part of the described species of flowering plants, and at least nine-tenths of the number of individuals comprising the vegetation of the world" (Lindley), so that a full study of the Grasses may almost be said to be the work of a lifetime. But Shakespeare was certainly no such student of Grasses: in all these passages Grass is only mentioned in a generic manner, without any reference to any particular Grass. The passages in which hay is mentioned, I have not thought necessary to quote.

HAREBELL.

_Arviragus._

Thou shalt not lack The flower that's like thy face, pale Primrose, nor The azured Harebell, like thy veins.

_Cymbeline_, act iv, sc. 2 (220). (_See_ EGLANTINE.)

The Harebell of Shakespeare is undoubtedly the Wild Hyacinth (_Scilla nutans_), the "sanguine flower inscribed with woe" of Milton's "Lycidas," though we must bear in mind that the name is applied differently in various parts of the island; thus "the Harebell of Scotch writers is the Campanula, and the Bluebell, so celebrated in Scottish song, is the Wild Hyacinth or Scilla; while in England the same names are used conversely, the Campanula being the Bluebell and the Wild Hyacinth the Harebell" ("Poets' Pleasaunce")--but this will only apply in poetry; in ordinary language, at least in the South of England, the Wild Hyacinth is the Bluebell, and is the plant referred to by Shakespeare as the Harebell.

It is one of the chief ornaments of our woods,[109:1] growing in profusion wherever it establishes itself, and being found of various colours--pink, white, and blue. As a garden flower it may well be introduced into shrubberies, but as a border plant it cannot compete with its rival relation, the Hyacinthus orientalis, which is the parent of all the fine double and many coloured Hyacinths in which the florists have delighted for the last two centuries.

FOOTNOTES:

[109:1] "'Dust of sapphire,' writes my friend Dr. John Brown to me of the wood Hyacinths of Scotland in the spring; yes, that is so--each bud more beautiful itself than perfectest jewel."--RUSKIN, _Proserpina_, p. 73.

HARLOCKS.

_Cordelia._

Crown'd with rank Fumiter and Furrow-weeds, With Harlocks, Hemlock, Nettles, Cuckoo-flowers.

_King Lear_, act iv, sc. 4 (3). (_See_ CUCKOO-FLOWERS.)

I cannot do better than follow Dr. Prior on this word: "Harlock, as usually printed in 'King Lear' and in Drayton, ecl. 4--

'The Honeysuckle, the Harlocke, The Lily and the Lady-smocke,'

is a word that does not occur in the Herbals, and which the commentators have supposed to be a misprint for Charlock. There can be little doubt that Hardock is the correct reading, and that the plant meant is the one now called Burdock." Schmidt also adopts Burdock as the right interpretation.

HAWTHORNS.

(1) _Rosalind._

There's a man hangs odes upon Hawthorns and elegies on Brambles.

_As You Like It_, act iii, sc. 2 (379).

(2) _Quince._

This green plot shall be our stage, this Hawthorn-brake our tiring house.

_Midsummer Night's Dream_, act iii, sc. 1 (3).

(3) _Helena._

Your tongue's sweet air, More tuneable than lark to shepherd's ear, When Wheat is green, when Hawthorn-buds appear.

_Ibid._, act i, sc. 1 (183).

(4) _Falstaff._

I cannot cog and say thou art this and that, like a many of these lisping Hawthorn-buds.

_Merry Wives_, act iii, sc. 3 (76).

(5) _K. Henry._

Gives not the Hawthorn-bush a sweeter shade To shepherds looking on their silly sheep, Than doth a rich embroider'd canopy To kings that fear their subjects' treachery? O yes, it doth; a thousand-fold it doth.

_3rd Henry VI_, act ii, sc. 5 (42).

(6) _Edgar._

Through the sharp Hawthorn blows the cold wind (_bis_).

_King Lear_, act iii, sc. 4 (47 and 102).

(7) _Arcite._

Againe betake you to yon Hawthorne house.

_Two Noble Kinsmen_, act iii, sc. 1 (90).

Under its many names of Albespeine, Whitethorn, Haythorn or Hawthorn, May, and Quickset, this tree has ever been a favourite with all lovers of the country.

"Among the many buds proclaiming May, Decking the field in holiday array, Striving who shall surpass in braverie, Mark the faire blooming of the Hawthorn tree, Who, finely cloathed in a robe of white, Fills full the wanton eye with May's delight. Yet for the braverie that she is in Doth neither handle card nor wheel to spin, Nor changeth robes but twice; is never seen In other colours but in white or green."

such is Browne's advice in his "Britannia's Pastorals" (ii. 2). He, like the other early poets, clearly loved the tree for its beauty; and in picturesque beauty the Hawthorn yields to none, when it can be seen in some sheltered valley growing with others of its kind, and allowed to grow unpruned, for then in the early summer it is literally a sheet of white, yet beautifully relieved by the tender green of the young leaves, and by the bright crimson of the anthers, and loaded with a scent that is most delicate and refreshing. But not only for its beauty is the Hawthorn a favourite tree, but also for its many pleasant associations--it is essentially the May tree, the tree that tells that winter is really past, and that summer has fairly begun. Hear Spenser--

"Thilke same season, when all is yclade With pleasaunce; the ground with Grasse, the woods With greene leaves, the bushes with blooming buds, Youngthes folke now flocken in everywhere To gather May-baskets and smelling Brere; And home they hasten the postes to dight, And all the kirk-pillours eare day-light, With Hawthorne-buds, and sweet Eglantine, And girlondes of Roses, and soppes-in-wine."

_Shepherd's Calendar--May._

Yet in spite of its pretty name, and in spite of the poets, the Hawthorn now seldom flowers till June, and I should suppose it is never in flower on May Day, except perhaps in Devonshire and Cornwall; and it is very doubtful if it ever were so found, except in these southern counties, though some fancy that the times of flowering of several of our flowers are changed, and in some instances largely changed. But "it was an old custom in Suffolk, in most of the farmhouses, that any servant who could bring in a branch of Hawthorn in full blossom on the 1st of May was entitled to a dish of cream for breakfast. This custom is now disused, not so much from the reluctance of the masters to give the reward, as from the inability of the servants to find the Whitethorn in flower."--BRAND'S _Antiquities_.[112:1] Even those who might not see the beauty of an old Thorn tree, have found its uses as one of the very few trees that will grow thick in the most exposed places, and so give pleasant shade and shelter in places where otherwise but little shade and shelter could be found.

"Every shepherd tells his tale Under the Hawthorn in the dale."--MILTON.

And "at Hesket, in Cumberland, yearly on St. Barnabas' Day, by the highway side under a Thorn tree is kept the court for the whole forest of Englewood."--_History of Westmoreland._

The Thorn may well be admitted as a garden shrub either in its ordinary state, or in its beautiful double white, red, and pink varieties, and those who like to grow curious trees should not omit the Glastonbury Thorn, which flowers at the ordinary time, and bears fruit, but also buds and flowers again in winter, showing at the same time the new flowers and the older fruit.

Nor must we omit to mention that the Whitethorn is one of the trees that claims to have been used for the sacred Crown of Thorns. It is most improbable that it was so, in fact almost certain that it was not; but it was a mediæval belief, as Sir John Mandeville witnesses: "Then was our Lord yled into a gardyn, and there the Jewes scorned hym, and maden hym a crowne of the branches of the Albiespyne, that is Whitethorn, that grew in the same gardyn, and setten yt upon hys heved. And therefore hath the Whitethorn many virtues. For he that beareth a branch on hym thereof, no thundre, ne no maner of tempest may dere hym, ne in the howse that it is ynne may non evil ghost enter."

And we may finish the Hawthorn with a short account of its name, which is interesting:--"Haw," or "hay," is the same word as "hedge" ("sepes, id est, _haies_," John de Garlande), and so shows the great antiquity of this plant as used for English hedges. In the north, "haws" are still called "haigs;" but whether Hawthorn was first applied to the fruit or the hedge, whether the hedge was so called because it was made of the Thorn tree that bears the haws, or whether the fruit was so named because it was borne on the hedge tree, is a point on which etymologists differ.

FOOTNOTES:

[112:1] "Gilbert White in his 'Naturalists' Calendar' as the result of observations taken from 1768 to 1793 puts down the flowering of the Hawthorn as occurring in different years upon dates so widely apart as the twentieth of April and the eleventh of June."--MILNER'S _Country Pleasures_, p. 83.

HAZEL.

(1) _Mercutio._

Her [Queen Mab's] chariot is an empty Hazel-nut Made by the joiner squirrel or old grub, Time out o' mind the fairies' coachmakers.

_Romeo and Juliet_, act i, sc. 4 (67).

(2) _Petruchio._

Kate like the Hazel twig Is straight and slender and as brown in hue As Hazel-nuts and sweeter than the kernels.

_Taming of the Shrew_, act ii, sc. 1 (255).

(3) _Caliban._

I'll bring thee to clustering Filberts.

_Tempest_, act ii, sc. 2 (174).

(4) _Touchstone._

Sweetest Nut hath sourest rind, Such a Nut is Rosalind.

_As You Like It_, act iii, sc. 2 (115).

(5) _Celia._

For his verity in love I do think him as concave as a covered goblet or a worm-eaten Nut.

_Ibid._, act iii, sc. 4 (25).

(6) _Lafeu._

Believe this of me, there can be no kernel in this light Nut.

_All's Well that Ends Well_, act ii, sc. 5 (46).

(7) _Mercutio._

Thou wilt quarrel with a man for cracking Nuts, having no other reason but because thou hast Hazel eyes.

_Romeo and Juliet_, act iii, sc. 1 (20).

(8) _Thersites._

Hector shall have a great catch, if he knock out either of your brains; a' were as good crack a fusty Nut with no kernel.

_Troilus and Cressida_, act ii, sc. 1 (109).

(9) _Gonzalo._

I'll warrant him for drowning; though the ship were no stronger than a Nut-shell.

_Tempest_, act i, sc. 1 (49).

(10) _Titania._

I have a venturous fairy that shall seek The squirrel's hoard, and fetch thee new Nuts.

_Midsummer Night's Dream_, act iv, sc. 1 (40).

(11) _Hamlet._

O God, I could be bounded in a Nut-shell and count myself a king of infinite space, were it not that I have bad dreams.

_Hamlet_, act ii, sc. 2 (260).

(12) _Dromio of Syracuse._

Some devils ask but the parings of one's nail, A Rush, a hair, a drop of blood, a pin, A Nut, a Cherry-stone.

_Comedy of Errors_, act iv, sc. 3 (72).

Dr. Prior has decided that "'Filbert' is a barbarous compound of _phillon_ or _feuille_, a leaf, and _beard_, to denote its distinguishing peculiarity, the leafy involucre projecting beyond the nut." But in the times before Shakespeare the name was more poetically said to be derived from the nymph Phyllis. Nux Phyllidos is its name in the old vocabularies, and Gower ("Confessio Amantis") tells us why--

"Phyllis in the same throwe Was shape into a Nutte-tree, That alle men it might see; And after Phyllis philliberde, This tre was cleped in the yerde"

(Lib. quart.),

and so Spenser spoke of it as "'Phillis' philbert" (Elegy 17).[115:1]

The Nut, the Filbert, and the Cobnut, are all botanically the same, and the two last were cultivated in England long before Shakespeare's time, not only for the fruit, but also, and more especially, for the oil.

There is a peculiarity in the growth of the Nut that is worth the notice of the botanical student. The male blossoms, or catkins (anciently called "agglettes or blowinges"), are mostly produced at the ends of the year's shoots, while the pretty little crimson female blossoms are produced close to the branch; they are completely sessile or unstalked. Now in most fruit trees, when a flower is fertilized, the fruit is produced exactly in the same place, with respect to the main tree, that the flower occupied; a Peach or Apricot, for instance, rests upon the branch which bore the flower. But in the Nut a different arrangement prevails. As soon as the flower is fertilized it starts away from the parent branch; a fresh branch is produced, bearing leaves and the Nut or Nuts at the end, so that the Nut is produced several inches away from the spot on which the flower originally was. I know of no other tree that produces its fruit in this way, nor do I know what special benefit to the plant arises from this arrangement.

Much folk-lore has gathered round the Hazel tree and the Nuts. The cracking of Nuts, with much fortune-telling connected therewith, was the favourite amusement on All Hallow's Eve (Oct. 31), so that the Eve was called Nutcrack Night. I believe the custom still exists; it certainly has not been very long abolished, for the Vicar of Wakefield and his neighbours "religiously cracked Nuts on All Hallow's Eve." And in many places "an ancient custom prevailed of going a Nutting on Holy Rood Day (Sept. 14), which it was esteemed quite unlucky to omit."--FORSTER.[116:1]

A greater mystery connected with the Hazel is the divining rod, for the discovery of water and metals. This has always by preference been a forked Hazel-rod, though sometimes other rods are substituted. The belief in its power dates from a very early period, and is by no means extinct. The divining-rod is said to be still used in Cornwall, and firmly believed in; nor has this belief been confined to the uneducated. Even Linnæus confessed himself to be half a convert to it, and learned treatises have been written accepting the facts, and accounting for them by electricity or some other subtle natural agency. Most of us, however, will rather agree with Evelyn's cautious verdict, that the virtues attributed to the forked stick "made out so solemnly by the attestation of magistrates, and divers other learned and credible persons, who have critically examined matters of fact, is certainly next to a miracle, and requires a strong faith."

FOOTNOTES:

[115:1] "Hic fullus--a fylberd-tre."--_Nominale_, 15th cent.

"Fylberde, notte--Fillum."

"Filberde, tre--Phillis."--_Promptorium Parvulorum._

"The Filbyrdes hangyng to the ground."--_Squyr of Lowe Degre_ (37).

[116:1] See a long account of the connection of nuts with All Hallow's Eve in Hanson, "Med. ævi Calend." i. 363.

HEATH.

_Gonzalo._

Now would I give a thousand furlongs of sea for an acre of barren ground, long Heath, brown Furze, anything.

_Tempest_, act i, sc. 1 (70).

There are other passages in which the word Heath occurs in Shakespeare, but in none else is the flower referred to; the other references are to an open heath or common. And in this place no special Heath can be selected, unless by "long Heath" we suppose him to have meant the Ling (_Calluna vulgaris_). And this is most probable, for so Lyte calls it. "There is in this countrie two kindes of Heath, one which beareth the flowres alongst the stemmes, and is called Long Heath." But it is supposed by some that the correct reading is "Ling, Heath," &c., and in that case Heath will be a generic word, meaning any of the British species (_see_ LING). Of British species there are five, and wherever they exist they are dearly prized as forming a rich element of beauty in our landscapes. They are found all over the British Islands, and they seem to be quite indifferent as to the place of their growth. They are equally beautiful in the extreme Highlands of Scotland, or on the Quantock and Exmoor Hills of the South--everywhere they clothe the hill-sides with a rich garment of purple that is wonderfully beautiful, whether seen under the full influence of the brightest sunshine, or under the dark shadows of the blackest thundercloud. And the botanical geography of the Heath tribe is very remarkable; it is found over the whole of Europe, in Northern Asia, and in Northern Africa. Then the tribe takes a curious leap, being found in immense abundance, both of species and individuals, in Southern Africa, while it is entirely absent from North and South America. Not a single species has been found in the New World. A few plants of Calluna vulgaris have been found in Newfoundland and Massachusetts, but that is not a true Heath.

As a garden plant the Heath has been strangely neglected. Many of the species are completely hardy, and will make pretty evergreen bushes of from 2ft. to 4ft. high, but they are better if kept close-grown by constant clipping. The species best suited for this treatment are E. Mediterranea, E. arborea, and E. codonoides. Of the more humble-growing species, E. vagans (the Cornish Heath) will grow easily in most gardens, though in its native habitat it is confined to the serpentine formation; nor must we omit E. herbacea, which also will grow anywhere, and, if clipped yearly after flowering, will make a most beautiful border to any flower-bed; or it may be used more extensively, as it is at Doddington Park, in Gloucestershire (Sir Gerald Codrington's), where there is a large space in front of the house, several yards square, entirely filled with E. herbacea. When this is in flower (and it is so for nearly two months, or sometimes more) the effect, as seen from above, is of the richest Turkey carpet, but of such a colour and harmony as no Turkey carpet ever attained.

Several of the South-European Heaths were cultivated in England in Shakespeare's time.

HEBENON OR HEBONA.[118:1]

_Ghost._

Upon my secure hour thy uncle stole, With juice of cursed Hebenon in a vial, And in the porches of my ear did pour The leperous distilment; whose effect Holds such an enmity with blood of man That swift as quicksilver it courses through The natural gates and alleys of the body, And with a sudden vigour it doth posset And curd, like eager droppings into milk, The thin and wholesome blood; so did it mine; And a most instant tetter bark'd about, Most lazar-like, with vile and loathsome crust, All my smooth body.

_Hamlet_, act i, sc. 5 (61).

Before and in the time of Shakespeare other writers had spoken of the narcotic and poisonous effects of Heben, Hebenon, or Hebona. Gower says--

"Ful of delite, Slepe hath his hous, and of his couche, Within his chambre if I shall touche, Of Hebenus that slepy tre The bordes all aboute be."

_Conf. Aman._, lib. quart. (ii. 103, Paulli).

Spenser says--

"Faire Venus sonne, . . . Lay now thy deadly Heben bow apart."

_F. Q._, introd., st. 3.

"There (in Mammon's garden) Cypresse grew in greatest store, And trees of bitter gall and Heben sad."

_F. Q._,