Chapter V: Part I: The Plant-Lore of Shakespeare (2)

In Northern Europe it is the most universal and the most useful of trees. It is "the superlative tree in respect of the ground it covers, and in the variety of purposes to which it is converted in Lapland, where the natives sit in birchen huts on birchen chairs, wearing birchen boots and breeches, with caps and capes of the same material, warming themselves by fires of birchwood charcoal, reading books bound in birch, and eating herrings from a birchen platter, pickled in a birchen cask. Their baskets, boats, harness, and utensils are all of Birch; in short, from cradle to coffin, the Birch forms the peculiar environment of the Laplander."[36:1] In England we still admire its graceful beauty, whether it grows in our woods or our gardens, and we welcome its pleasant odour on our Russia leather bound books; but we have ceased to make beer from its young shoots,[36:2] and we hold it in almost as low repute (from the utilitarian point of view) as Turner and Shakespeare seem to have held it.

FOOTNOTES:

[36:1] "Gardener's Chronicle."

[36:2] "Although beer is now seldom made from birchen twigs, yet it is by no means an uncommon practice in some country districts to tap the white trunks of Birches, and collect the sweet sap which exudes from them for wine-making purposes. In some parts of Leicestershire this sap is collected in large quantities every spring, and birch wine, when well made, is a wholesome and by no means an unpleasant beverage."--B. in _The Garden_, April, 1877. "The Finlanders substitute the leaves of Birch for those of the tea-plant; the Swedes extract a syrup from the sap, from which they make a spirituous liquor. In London they make champagne of it. The most virtuous uses to which it is applied are brooms and wooden shoes."--_A Tour Round My Garden_, Letter xix.

BITTER-SWEET, _see_ APPLE (22).

BLACKBERRIES.

(1) _Falstaff._

Give you a reason on compulsion!--if reasons were as plentiful
as Blackberries, I would give no man a reason upon
compulsion, I.[37:1]

_1st Henry IV_, act ii, sc. 4 (263).

(2) _Falstaff._

Shall the blessed sun of heaven prove a micher and eat
Blackberries?

_Ibid._ (450).

(3) _Thersites._

That same dog-fox Ulysses is not proved worth a Blackberry.

_Troilus and Cressida_, act v, sc. 4 (12).

(4) _Rosalind._

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

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

(5)

The thorny Brambles and embracing bushes,
As fearful of him, part, through whom he rushes.

_Venus and Adonis_ (629).

I here join together the tree and the fruit, the Bramble (_Rubus fruticosus_) and the Blackberry. There is not much to be said for a plant that is the proverbial type of a barren country or untidy cultivation, yet the Bramble and the Blackberry have their charms, and we could ill afford to lose them from our hedgerows. The name Bramble originally meant anything thorny, and Chaucer applied it to the Dog Rose--

"He was chaste and no lechour,
And sweet as is the Bramble flower
That bereth the red hepe."

But in Shakespeare's time it was evidently confined to the Blackberry-bearing Bramble.

There is a quaint legend of the origin of the plant which is worth repeating. It is thus pleasantly told by Waterton: "The cormorant was once a wool merchant. He entered into partnership with the Bramble and the bat, and they freighted a large ship with wool; she was wrecked, and the firm became bankrupt. Since that disaster the bat skulks about till midnight to avoid his creditors, the cormorant is for ever diving into the deep to discover its foundered vessel, while the Bramble seizes hold of every passing sheep to make up his loss by stealing the wool."

As a garden plant, the common Bramble had better be kept out of the garden, but there are double pink and white-blossomed varieties, and others with variegated leaves, that are handsome plants on rough rockwork. The little Rubus saxatilis is a small British Bramble that is pretty on rockwork, and among the foreign Brambles there are some that should on no account be omitted where ornamental shrubs are grown. Such are the R. leucodermis from Nepaul, with its bright silvery bark and amber-coloured fruit; R. Nootkanus, with very handsome foliage, and pure white rose-like flowers; R. Arcticus, an excellent rockwork plant from Northern Europe, with very pleasant fruit, but difficult to establish; R. Australis (from New Zealand), a most quaint plant, with leaves so depauperated that it is apparently leafless, and hardy in the South of England; and R. deliciosus, a very handsome plant from the Rocky Mountains. There are several others well worth growing, but I mention these few to show that the Bramble is not altogether such a villainous and useless weed as it is proverbially supposed to be.

FOOTNOTES:

[37:1] _See_ RAISINS, p. 238.

BOX.

_Maria._ Get ye all three into the Box tree.

_Twelfth Night_, act ii, sc. 5 (18).

The Box is a native British tree, and in the sixteenth century was probably much more abundant as a wild tree than it is now. Chaucer notes it as a dismal tree. He describes Palamon in his misery as--

"Like was he to byholde,
The Boxe tree or the Asschen deed and colde."

_The Knightes Tale._

Spenser noted it as "The Box yet mindful of his olde offence," and in Shakespeare's time there were probably more woods of Box in England than the two which still remain at Box Hill, in Surrey, and Boxwell, in Gloucestershire. The name remains, though the trees are gone, in Box in Wilts, Boxgrove, Boxley, Boxmoor, Boxted, and Boxworth.[39:1] From its wild quarters the Box tree was very early brought into gardens, and was especially valued, not only for its rich evergreen colour, but because, with the Yew, it could be cut and tortured into all the ungainly shapes which so delighted our ancestors in Shakespeare's time, though one of the most illustrious of them, Lord Bacon, entered his protest against such barbarisms: "I, for my part, do not like images cut out in Juniper or other garden stuff; they be for children" ("Essay of Gardens").

The chief use of the Box now is for blocks for wood-carving, for which its close grain makes it the most suitable of all woods.[39:2]

FOOTNOTES:

[39:1] In Boxford, and perhaps in some of the other names, the word has no connection with the tree, but marks the presence of water or a stream.

[39:2] In some parts of Europe almost a sacred character is given to the Box. For a curious record of blessing the Box, and of a sermon on the lessons taught by the Box, see "Gardener's Chronicle," April 19, 1873.

BRAMBLE, _see_ BLACKBERRIES.

BRIER.

(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) _Fairy._

Over hill, over dale,
Thorough Bush, thorough Brier.

_Midsummer Night's Dream_, act ii, sc. 1 (2).

(3) _Thisbe._

Of colour like the red Rose on triumphant Brier.

_Ibid._, act iii, sc. 1 (90).

(4) _Puck._

I'll lead you about a round,
Through bog, through bush, through Brake, through Brier.

_Midsummer Night's Dream_, act iii, sc. 1 (10).

(5) _Puck._

For Briers and Thorns at their apparel snatch.

_Ibid._, act iii, sc. 2 (29).

(6) _Hermia._

Never so weary, never so in woe,
Bedabbled with the dew and torn with Briers.

_Ibid._, act iii, sc. 2 (443).

(7) _Oberon._

Every elf and fairy sprite
Hop as light as bird from Brier.

_Ibid._, act v, sc. 1 (400).

(8) _Adriana._

If aught possess thee from me, it is dross,
Usurping Ivy, Brier, or idle Moss.

_Comedy of Errors_, act ii, sc. 2 (179).

(9) _Plantagenet._

From off this Brier pluck a white Rose with me.

_1st Henry IV_, act ii, sc. 4 (30).

(10) _Rosalind._

O! how full of Briers is this working-day world!

_As You Like It_, act i, sc. 3 (12).

(11) _Helena._

The time will bring on summer,
When Briers shall have leaves as well as Thorns,
And be as sweet as sharp.

_All's Well_, act iv, sc. 4 (32).

(12) _Polyxenes._

I'll have thy beauty scratched with Briers.

_Winter's Tale_, act iv, sc. 4 (436).

(13) _Timon._

The Oaks bear mast, the Briers scarlet hips.

_Timon of Athens_, act iv, sc. 3 (422).

(14) _Coriolanus._

Scratches with Briers,
Scars to move laughter only.

_Coriolanus_, act iii, sc. 3 (51).

(15) _Quintus._

What subtle hole is this,
Whose mouth is cover'd with rude-growing Briers?

_Titus Andronicus_, act iii, sc. 3 (198).

In Shakespeare's time the "Brier" was not restricted to the Sweet Briar, as it usually is now; but it meant any sort of wild Rose, and even it would seem from No. 9 that it was applied to the cultivated Rose, for there the scene is laid in the Temple Gardens. In some of the passages it probably does not allude to any Rose, but simply to any wild thorny plant. That this was its common use then, we know from many examples. In "Le Morte Arthur," the Earl of Ascolot's daughter is described--

"Hyr Rode was rede as blossom or Brere
Or floure that springith in the felde" (179).

And in "A Pleasant New Court Song," in the Roxburghe Ballads--

"I stept me close aside
Under a Hawthorn Bryer."

It bears the same meaning in our Bibles, where "Thorns," "Brambles," and "Briers," stand for any thorny and useless plant, the soil of Palestine being especially productive of thorny plants of many kinds. Wickliffe's translation of Matthew vii. 16, is--"Whether men gaderen grapis of thornes; or figis of Breris?" and Tyndale's translation is much the same--"Do men gaddre grapes of thornes, or figges of Bryeres?"[41:1]

FOOTNOTES:

[41:1] "Brere--Carduus, tribulus, vepres, veprecula."--_Catholicon Anglicum._

BROOM.

(1) _Iris._

And thy Broom groves,
Whose shadow the dismissed bachelor loves,
Being lass-lorn.

_Tempest_, act iv, sc. 1 (66).

(2) _Puck._

I am sent with Broom before
To sweep the dust behind the door.

_Midsummer Night's Dream_, act v, sc. 1 (396).

(3) _Man._

I made good my place; at length they came to the Broomstaff
with me.

_Henry VIII_, act v, sc. 4 (56).

The Broom was one of the most popular plants of the Middle Ages. Its modern Latin name is _Cytisus scoparius_, but under its then Latin name of _Planta genista_ it gave its name to the Plantagenet family, either in the time of Henry II., as generally reported, or probably still earlier. As the favourite badge of the family it appears on their monuments and portraits, and was embroidered on their clothes and imitated in their jewels. Nor was it only in England that the plant was held in such high favour; it was the special flower of the Scotch, and it was highly esteemed in many countries on the Continent, especially in Brittany. Yet, in spite of all this, there are only these three notices of the plant in Shakespeare, and of those three, two (2 and 3) refer to its uses when dead; and the third (1), though it speaks of it as living, yet has nothing to say of the remarkable beauties of this favourite British flower. Yet it has great beauties which cannot easily be overlooked. Its large, yellow flowers, its graceful habit of growth, and its fragrance--

"Sweet is the Broome-flowre, but yet sowre enough"--

SPENSER, _Sonnet_ xxvi.

at once arrest the attention of the most careless observer of Nature. We are almost driven to the conclusion that Shakespeare could not have had much real acquaintance with the Broom, or he would not have sent his "dismissed bachelor" to "Broom-groves."[42:1] I should very much doubt that the Broom could ever attain to the dimensions of a grove, though Steevens has a note on the passage that "near Gamlingay, in Cambridgeshire, it grows high enough to conceal the tallest cattle as they pass through it; and in places where it is cultivated still higher." Chaucer speaks of the Broom, but does not make it so much of a tree--

"Amid the Broom he basked in the sun."

And other poets have spoken of the Broom in the same way--thus Collins--

"When Dan Sol to slope his wheels began
Amid the Broom he basked him on the ground."

_Castle of Indolence_, canto i.

And a Russian poet speaks of the Broom as a tree--

"See there upon the Broom tree's bough
The young grey eagle flapping now."

_Flora Domestica_, p. 68.

As a garden plant it is perhaps seen to best advantage when mixed with other shrubs, as when grown quite by itself it often has an untidy look. There is a pure white variety which is very beautiful, but it is very liable to flower so abundantly as to flower itself to death. There are a few other sorts, but none more beautiful than the British.

FOOTNOTES:

[42:1] Yet Bromsgrove must be a corruption of Broom-grove, and there are other places in England named from the Broom.

BULRUSH.

_Wooer._

Her careless tresses
A wreake of Bulrush rounded.

_Two Noble Kinsmen_, act iv, sc. 1 (104).

_See_ RUSH, p. 262.

BURDOCK AND BURS.

(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.

BURNET.

_Burgundy._

The even mead, that erst brought sweetly forth
The freckled Cowslip, Burnet, and green Clover.

_Henry V._ act v, sc. 2 (48).

The Burnet (_Poterium sanguisorba_) is a native plant of no great beauty or horticultural interest, but it was valued as a good salad plant, the leaves tasting of Cucumber, and Lord Bacon (contemporary with Shakespeare) seems to have been especially fond of it. He says ("Essay of Gardens"):

"Those flowers which perfume the air most delightfully, not passed by as the rest, but being trodden upon and crushed, are three--that is, Burnet, Wild Thyme, and Water Mints; therefore you are to set whole alleys of them, to have the pleasure when you walk or tread." Drayton had the same affection for it--

"The Burnet shall bear up with this,
Whose leaf I greatly fancy."

_Nymphal V._

It also was, and still is, valued as a forage plant that will grow and keep fresh all the winter in dry barren pastures, thus often giving food for sheep when other food was scarce. It has occasionally been cultivated, but the result has not been very satisfactory, except on very poor land, though, according to the Woburn experiments, as reported by Sinclair, it contains a larger amount of nutritive matter in the spring than most of the Grasses. It has brown flowers, from which it is supposed to derive its name (Brunetto).[45:1]

FOOTNOTES:

[44:1]

"A Clote-leef he had under his hood
For swoot, and to keep his heed from hete."

CHAUCER, _Prologue of the Chanounes Yeman_ (25).

This Clote leaf is by many considered to be the Burdock leaf, but it was more probably the name of the Water-lily.

[45:1] "Burnet colowre, Burnetum, burnetus."--_Promptorium Parvulorum._

CABBAGE.

_Evans._

_Pauca verba_, Sir John; good worts.

_Falstaff._

Good worts! good Cabbage.

_Merry Wives_, act i, sc. 1 (123).

The history of the name is rather curious. It comes to us from the French _Chou cabus_, which is the French corruption of _Caulis capitatus_, the name by which Pliny described it.

The Cabbage of Shakespeare's time was essentially the same as ours, and from the contemporary accounts it seems that the sorts cultivated were as good and as numerous as they are now. The cultivated Cabbage is the same specifically as the wild Cabbage of our sea-shores (_Brassica oleracea_) improved by cultivation. Within the last few years the Cabbage has been brought from the kitchen garden into the flower garden on account of the beautiful variegation of its leaves. This, however, is no novelty, for Parkinson said of the many sorts of Cabbage in his day: "There is greater diversity in the form and colour of the leaves of this plant than there is in any other that I know groweth on the ground. . . . Many of them being of no use with us for the table, but for delight to behold the wonderful variety of the works of God herein."

CAMOMILE.

_Falstaff._

Though the Camomile, the more it is trodden on the faster it
grows, yet youth, the more it is wasted the sooner it wears.

_1st Henry IV_, act ii, sc. 4 (443).

The low-growing Camomile, the emblem of the sweetness of humility, has the lofty names of Camomile (_Chamæmelum_, _i.e._, Apple of the Earth) and Anthemis nobilis. Its fine aromatic scent and bitter flavour suggested that it must be possessed of much medicinal virtue, while its low growth made it suitable for planting on the edges of flower-beds and paths, its scent being brought out as it was walked upon. For this purpose it was much used in Elizabethan gardens; "large walks, broad and long, close and open, like the Tempe groves in Thessaly, raised with gravel and sand, having seats and banks of Camomile; all this delights the mind, and brings health to the body."[46:1] As a garden flower it is now little used, though its bright starry flower and fine scent might recommend it; but it is still to be found in herb gardens, and is still, though not so much as formerly, used as a medicine.

Like many other low plants, the Camomile is improved by being pressed into the earth by rolling or otherwise, and there are many allusions to this in the old writers: thus Lily in his "Euphues" says: "The Camomile the more it is trodden and pressed down, the more it spreadeth;" and in the play, "The More the Merrier" (1608), we have--

"The Camomile shall teach thee patience
Which riseth best when trodden most upon."

FOOTNOTES:

[46:1] Lawson, "New Orchard," p. 54.

CARDUUS, _see_ HOLY THISTLE.

CARNATIONS.

(1) _Perdita._

The fairest flowers o' the season
Are our Carnations and streak'd Gillyvors,
Which some call Nature's bastards.

_Winter's Tale_, act iv, sc. 4 (81).

(2) _Polyxenes._

Then make your garden rich in Gillyvors,
And do not call them bastards.

_Ibid._ (98).

There are two other places in which Carnation is mentioned, but they refer to carnation colour--_i.e._, to pure flesh colour.

(3) _Quickly._

'A could never abide Carnation; 'twas a colour he never liked.

_Henry V_, act ii, sc. 3 (35).

(4) _Costard._

Pray you, sir, how much Carnation riband may a man buy for a
remuneration?

_Love's Labour's Lost_, act iii, sc. 1 (146).

Dr. Johnson and others have supposed that the flower is so named from the colour, but that this is a mistake is made very clear by Dr. Prior. He quotes Spenser's "Shepherd's Calendar"--

"Bring Coronations and Sops-in-Wine
Worn of Paramours."

and so it is spelled in Lyte's "Herbal," 1578, coronations or cornations. This takes us at once to the origin of the name. The plant was one of those used in garlands (_coronæ_), and was probably one of the most favourite plants used for that purpose, for which it was well suited by its shape and beauty. Pliny gives a long list of garland flowers (_Coronamentorum genera_) used by the Romans and Athenians, and Nicander gives similar lists of Greek garland plants (+stephanômatika anthê+), in which the Carnation holds so high a place that it was called by the name it still has--Dianthus, or Flower of Jove.

Its second specific name, Caryophyllus--_i.e._, Nut-leaved--seems at first very inappropriate for a grassy leaved plant, but the name was first given to the Indian Clove-tree, and from it transferred to the Carnation, on account of its fine clove-like scent. Its popularity as an English plant is shown by its many names--Pink, Carnation, Gilliflower[48:1] (an easily-traced and well-ascertained corruption from Caryophyllus), Clove, Picotee,[48:2] and Sops-in-Wine, from the flowers being used to flavour wine and beer.[48:3] There is an historical interest also in the flowers. All our Carnations, Picotees, and Cloves come originally from the single Dianthus caryophyllus; this is not a true British plant, but it holds a place in the English flora, being naturalized on Rochester and other castles. It is abundant in Normandy, and I found it (in 1874) covering the old castle of Falaise in which William the Conqueror was born. Since that I have found that it grows on the old castles of Dover, Deal, and Cardiff, all of them of Norman construction, as was Rochester, which was built by Gundulf, the special friend of William. Its occurrence on these several Norman castles make it very possible that it was introduced by the Norman builders, perhaps as a pleasant memory of their Norman homes, though it may have been accidentally introduced with the Normandy (Caen) stone, of which parts of the castles are built. How soon it became a florist's flower we do not know, but it must have been early, as in Shakespeare's time the sorts of Cloves, Carnations, and Pinks were so many that Gerard says: "A great and large volume would not suffice to write of every one at large in particular, considering how infinite they are, and how every yeare, every clymate and countrey, bringeth forth new sorts, and such as have not heretofore bin written of;" and so we may certainly say now--the description of the many kinds of Carnations and Picotees, with directions for their culture, would fill a volume.

FOOTNOTES:

[48:1] This is the more modern way of spelling it. In the first folio it is "Gillyvor." "Chaucer writes it Gylofre, but by associating it with the the Nutmeg and other spices, appears to mean the Clove Tree, which is, in fact, the proper signification."--_Flora Domestica._ In the "Digby Mysteries" (Mary Magdalene, l. 1363) the Virgin Mary is addressed as "the Jentyll Jelopher."

[48:2] Picotee is from the French word _picoté_ marked with little pricks round the edge, like the "picots," on lace, _picot_ being the technical term in France for the small twirls which in England are called "purl" or "pearl."

[48:3] Wine thus flavoured was evidently a very favourite beverage. "Bartholemeus Peytevyn tenet duas Caracutas terræ in Stony-Aston in Com. Somerset de Domino Rege in capite per servitium unius[48:a] Sextarii vini Gariophilati reddendi Domino Regi per annum ad Natale Domini. Et valet dicta terra per ann. _xl._"

[48:a] "A Sextary of July-flower wine, and a Sextary contained
about a pint and a half, sometimes more."--BLOUNT'S _Antient
Tenures_.

CARRAWAYS.

_Shallow._

Nay, you shall see my orchard, where, in an arbour we will eat
a last year's Pippin of my own graffing, with a dish of
Caraways and so forth.

_2nd Henry IV_, act v, sc. 3 (1).

Carraways are the fruit of Carum carui, an umbelliferous plant of a large geographical range, cultivated in the eastern counties, and apparently wild in other parts of England, but not considered a true native. In Shakespeare's time the seed was very popular, and was much more freely used than in our day. "The seed," says Parkinson, "is much used to be put among baked fruit, or into bread, cakes, &c., to give them a rellish. It is also made into comfits and put into Trageas or (as we call them in English) Dredges, that are taken for cold or wind in the body, as also are served to the table with fruit."

Carraways are frequently mentioned in the old writers as an accompaniment to Apples. In a very interesting bill of fare of 1626, extracted from the account book of Sir Edward Dering, is the following--

"Carowaye and comfites, 6d.

A Warden py that the cooke
Made--we fining y{e} Wardens. 2s. 4d.

Second Course.

A cold Warden pie.

Complement.
Apples and Carrawayes."--_Notes and Queries_, i, 99.

So in Russell's "Book of Nurture:" "After mete . . . pepyns Careaway in comfyte," line 78, and the same in line 714; and in Wynkyn de Worde's "Boke of Kervynge" ("Babee's Book," p. 266 and 271), and in F. Seager's "Schoole of Vertue" ("Babee's Book," p. 343)--

"Then cheese with fruite On the table set,
With Bisketes or Carowayes As you may get."

The custom of serving roast Apples with a little saucerful of Carraway is still kept up at Trinity College, Cambridge, and, I believe, at some of the London Livery dinners.

CARROT.

_Evans._

Remember, William, focative is _caret_,

_Quickly._

And that's a good root.

_Merry Wives_, act iv, sc. 1 (55).

Dame Quickly's pun gives us our Carrot, a plant which, originally derived from our wild Carrot (_Daucus Carota_), was introduced as a useful vegetable by the Flemings in the time of Elizabeth, and has probably been very little altered or improved since the time of its introduction. In Shakespeare's time the name was applied to the "Yellow Carrot" or Parsnep, as well as to the Red one. The name of Carrot comes directly from its Latin or rather Greek name, Daucus Carota, but it once had a prettier name. The Anglo-Saxons called it "bird's-nest," and Gerard gives us the reason, and it is a reason that shows they were more observant of the habits of plants than we generally give them credit for: "The whole tuft (of flowers) is drawn together when the seed is ripe, resembling a bird's nest; whereupon it hath been named of some Bird's-nest."

CEDAR.

(1) _Prospero._

And by the spurs pluck'd up
The Pine and Cedar.

_Tempest_, act v, sc. 1 (47).

(2) _Dumain._

As upright as the Cedar.

_Love's Labour's Lost_, act iv, sc. 3 (89).

(3) _Warwick._

As on a mountain top the Cedar shows,
That keeps his leaves in spite of any storm.

_2nd Henry VI_, act v, sc. 1 (205).

(4) _Warwick._

Thus yields the Cedar to the axe's edge,
Whose arms gave shelter to the princely eagle,
Under whose shade the ramping lion slept,
Whose top-branch o'erpeered Jove's spreading tree,
And kept low shrubs from winter's powerful wind.

_3rd Henry VI_, act v, sc. 2 (11).

(5) _Cranmer._

He shall flourish,
And, like a mountain Cedar, reach his branches
To all the plains about him.

_Henry VIII_, act v, sc. 5 (215).

(6) _Posthumus._

When from a stately Cedar shall be lopped branches, which,
being dead many years, shall after revive.

_Cymbeline_, act v, sc. 4 (140); and act v, sc. 5 (457).

(7) _Soothsayer._

The lofty Cedar, royal Cymbeline,
Personates thee. Thy lopp'd branches
. . . . . are now revived,
To the majestic Cedar join'd.

_Ibid._, act v, sc. 5 (453).

(8) _Gloucester._

But I was born so high,
Our aery buildeth in the Cedar's top,
And dallies with the wind and scorns the sun.

_Richard III_, act i, sc. 3 (263).

(9) _Coriolanus._

Let the mutinous winds
Strike the proud Cedars 'gainst the fiery sun.

_Coriolanus_, act v, sc. 3 (59).

(10) _Titus._

Marcus, we are but shrubs, no Cedars we.

_Titus Andronicus_, act iv, sc. 3 (45).

(11) _Daughter._

I have sent him where a Cedar,
Higher than all the rest, spreads like a Plane
Fast by a brook.

_Two Noble Kinsmen_, act ii, sc. 6 (4).

(12)

The sun ariseth in his majesty;
Who doth the world so gloriously behold
That Cedar-tops and hills seem burnished gold.

_Venus and Adonis_ (856).

(13)

The Cedar stoops not to the base shrub's foot,
But low shrubs wither at the Cedar's root.

_Lucrece_ (664).

The Cedar is the classical type of majesty and grandeur, and superiority to everything that is petty and mean. So Shakespeare uses it, and only in this way; for it is very certain he never saw a living specimen of the Cedar of Lebanon. But many travellers in the East had seen it and minutely described it, and from their descriptions he derived his knowledge of the tree; but not only, and probably not chiefly from travellers, for he was well acquainted with his Bible, and there he would meet with many a passage that dwelt on the glories of the Cedar, and told how it was the king of trees, so that "the Fir trees were not like his boughs, and the Chestnut trees were not like his branches, nor any tree in the garden of God was like unto him in his beauty, fair by the multitude of his branches, so that all the trees of Eden that were in the garden of God envied him" (Ezekiel xxxi. 8, 9). It was such descriptions as these that supplied Shakespeare with his imagery, and which made our ancestors try to introduce the tree into England. But there seems to have been much difficulty in establishing it. Evelyn tried to introduce it, but did not succeed at first, and the tree is not mentioned in his "Sylva" of 1664. It was, however, certainly introduced in 1676, when it appears, from the gardeners' accounts, to have been planted at Bretby Park, Derbyshire ("Gardener's Chronicle," January, 1877). I believe this is the oldest certain record of the planting of the Cedar in England, the next oldest being the trees in Chelsea Botanic Gardens, which were certainly planted in 1683. Since that time the tree has proved so suitable to the English soil that it is grown everywhere, and everywhere asserts itself as the king of evergreen trees, whether grown as a single tree on a lawn, or mixed in large numbers with other trees, as at Highclere Park, in Hampshire (Lord Carnarvon's). Among English Cedar trees there are probably none that surpass the fine specimens at Warwick Castle, which owe, however, much of their beauty to their position on the narrow strip of land between the Castle and the river. I mention these to call attention to the pleasant coincidence (for it is nothing more) that the most striking descriptions of the Cedar are given by Shakespeare to the then owner of the princely Castle of Warwick (Nos. 3 and 4).

The mediæval belief about the Cedar was that its wood was imperishable. "Hæc Cedrus, A{e} sydyretre, et est talis nature quod nunquam putrescet in aqua nec in terra" (English Vocabulary--15th cent.); but as a timber tree the English-grown Cedar has not answered to its old reputation, so that Dr. Lindley called it "the worthless though magnificent Cedar of Lebanon."

CHERRY.

(1) _Helena._

So we grew together,
Like to a double Cherry, seeming parted,
But yet a union in partition;
Two lovely berries moulded on one stem.

_Midsummer Night's Dream_, act iii, sc. 2 (208).

(2) _Demetrius._

O, how ripe in show
Thy lips, those kissing Cherries, tempting grow!

_Ibid._, act iii, sc. 2 (139).

(3) _Constance._

And it' grandam will
Give it a Plum, a Cherry, and a Fig.

_King John_, act ii, sc. 1 (161).

(4) _Lady._

'Tis as like you
As Cherry is to Cherry.

_Henry VIII_, act v, sc. 1 (170).

(5) _Gower._

She with her neeld composes
Nature's own shape of bud, bird, branch, or berry;
That even her art sisters the natural Roses,
Her inkle, silk, twin with the rubied Cherry.

_Pericles_, act v, chorus (5).

(6) _Dromio of Syracuse._

Some devils ask but the paring 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).

(7) _Queen._

Oh, when
The twyning Cherries shall their sweetness fall
Upon thy tasteful lips.

_Two Noble Kinsmen_, act i, sc. 1 (198).

(8)

When he was by, the birds such pleasure took,
That some would sing, some other in their bills
Would bring him Mulberries and ripe-red Cherries.
He fed them with his sight, they him with berries.

_Venus and Adonis_ (1101).

Besides these, there is mention of "cherry lips"[54:1] and "cherry-nose,"[54:2] and the game of "cherry-pit."[54:3] We have the authority of Pliny that the Cherry (_Prunus Cerasus_) was introduced into Italy from Pontus, and by the Romans was introduced into Britain. It is not, then, a true native, but it has now become completely naturalized in our woods and hedgerows, while the cultivated trees are everywhere favourites for the beauty of their flowers, and their rich and handsome fruit. In Shakespeare's time there were almost as many, and probably as good varieties, as there are now.

FOOTNOTES:

[54:1] _Midsummer Night's Dream_, act v, sc. 1; _Richard III_, act i, sc. 1; _Two Noble Kinsmen_, act iv, sc. 1.

[54:2] _Midsummer Night's Dream_, act v, sc. 1.

[54:3] _Twelfth Night_, act iii, sc. 4.

CHESTNUTS.

(1) _Witch._

A sailor's wife had Chestnuts in her lap,
And munch'd, and munch'd, and munch'd.

_Macbeth_, act i, sc. 3 (4).

(2) _Petruchio._

And do you tell me of a woman's tongue
That gives not half so great a blow to hear
As will a Chestnut in farmer's fire?

_Taming of the Shrew_, act i, sc. 2 (208).

(3) _Rosalind._

I' faith, his hair is of a good colour.

_Celia._

An excellent colour; your Chestnut was ever the only colour.

_As You Like It_, act iii, sc. 4 (11).

This is the Spanish or Sweet Chestnut, a fruit which seems to have been held in high esteem in Shakespeare's time, for Lyte, in 1578, says of it, "Amongst all kindes of wilde fruites the Chestnut is best and meetest for to be eaten." The tree cannot be regarded as a true native, but it has been so long introduced, probably by the Romans, that grand specimens are to be found in all parts of England; the oldest known specimen being at Tortworth, in Gloucestershire, which was spoken of as an old tree in the time of King Stephen; while the tree that is said to be the oldest and the largest in Europe is the Spanish Chestnut tree on Mount Etna, the famous Castagni du Centu Cavalli, which measures near the root 160 feet in circumference. It is one of our handsomest trees, and very useful for timber, and at one time it was supposed that many of our oldest buildings were roofed with Chestnut. This was the current report of the grand roof at Westminster Hall, but it is now discovered to be of Oak, and it is very doubtful whether the Chestnut timber is as lasting as it has long been supposed to be.

The Horse Chestnut was probably unknown to Shakespeare. It is an Eastern tree, and in no way related to the true Chestnut, and though the name has probably no connection with horses or their food, yet it is curious that the petiole has (especially when dry) a marked resemblance to a horse's leg and foot, and that both on the parent stem and the petiole may be found a very correct representation of a horseshoe with its nails.[55:1]

FOOTNOTES:

[55:1] For an excellent description of the great differences between the Spanish and Horse Chestnut, see "Gardener's Chronicle," Oct. 29, 1881.

CLOVER.

(1) _Burgundy._

The even mead, that erst brought sweetly forth
The freckled Cowslip, Burnet, and green Clover.

_Henry V_, act v, sc. 2 (48).

(2) _Tamora._

I will enchant the old Andronicus
With words more sweet, and yet more dangerous,
Than baits to fish, or Honey-stalks to sheep,
When, as the one is wounded with the bait,
The other rotted with delicious food.

_Titus Andronicus_, act iv, sc. 4 (89).

"Honey-stalks" are supposed to be the flower of the Clover. This seems very probable, but I believe the name is no longer applied. Of the Clover there are two points of interest that are worth notice. The Clover is one of the plants that claim to be the Shamrock of St. Patrick. This is not a settled point, and at the present day the Woodsorrel is supposed to have the better claim to the honour. But it is certain that the Clover is the "clubs" of the pack of cards. "Clover" is a corruption of "Clava," a club. In England we paint the Clover on our cards and call it "clubs," while in France they have the same figure, but call it "trefle."

CLOVES.

_Biron._

A Lemon.

_Longaville._

Stuck with Cloves.

_Love's Labour's Lost_, act v, sc. 2 (633).[56:1]

As a mention of a vegetable product, I could not omit this passage, but the reference is only to the imported spice and not to the tree from which then, as now, the Clove was gathered. The Clove of commerce is the unexpanded flower of the Caryophyllus aromaticus, and the history of its discovery and cultivation by the Dutch in Amboyna, with the vain attempts they made to keep the monopoly of the profitable spice, is perhaps the saddest chapter in all the history of commerce. See a full account with description and plate of the plant in "Bot. Mag.," vol. 54, No. 2749.

FOOTNOTES:

[56:1] "But then 'tis as full of drollery as ever it can hold; 'tis like an orange stuck with Cloves as for conceipt."--_The Rehearsal_, 1671, act iii, sc. 1.

COCKLE.

(1) _Biron._

Allons! allons! sowed Cockle reap'd no Corn.

_Love's Labour's Lost_, act iv, sc. 3 (383).

(2) _Coriolanus._

We nourish 'gainst our senate
The Cockle of rebellion, insolence, sedition,
Which we ourselves have plough'd for, sow'd, and scatter'd,
By mingling them with us.

_Coriolanus_, act iii, sc. 1 (69).

In Shakespeare's time the word "Cockle" was becoming restricted to the Corn-cockle (_Lychnis githago_), but both in his time, and certainly in that of the writers before him, it was used generally for any noxious weed that grew in corn-fields, and was usually connected with the Darnel and Tares.[57:1] So Gower--

"To sowe Cockel with the Corn
So that the tilthe is nigh forlorn,
Which Crist sew first his owne hond--
Now stant the Cockel in the lond
Where stood whilom the gode greine,
For the prelats now, as men sain,
For slouthen that they shoulden tille."

_Confessio Amantis_, lib. quintus (2-190, Paulli).

Latimer has exactly the same idea: "Oh, that our prelates would bee as diligent to sowe the corne of goode doctrine as Sathan is to sow Cockel and Darnel." . . . "There was never such a preacher in England as he (the devil) is. Who is able to tel his dylygent preaching? which every daye and every houre laboreth to sowe Cockel and Darnel" (Latimer's Fourth Sermon). And to the same effect Spenser--

"And thus of all my harvest-hope I have
Nought reaped but a weedie crop of care,
Which when I thought have thresht in swelling sheave,
Cockle for corn, and chaff for barley bare."

The Cockle or Campion is said to do mischief among the Wheat, not only, as the Poppy and other weeds, by occupying room meant for the better plant, but because the seed gets mixed with the corn, and then "what hurt it doth among corne, the spoyle unto bread, as well in colour, taste, and unwholsomness is better known than desired." So says Gerard, but I do not know how far modern experience confirms him. It is a pity the plant has so bad a character, for it is a very handsome weed, with a fine blue flower, and the seeds are very curious objects under the microscope, being described as exactly like a hedgehog rolled up.[58:1]

FOOTNOTES:

[57:1] "Cokylle--quædam aborigo, zazannia."--_Catholicon Anglicum._

[58:1] In Dorsetshire the Cockle is the bur of the Burdock. Barnes' Glossary of Dorset.

COLOQUINTIDA.

_Iago._

The food that to him now is as luscious as Locusts, shall be
to him shortly as bitter as Coloquintida.

_Othello_, act i, sc. 3 (354).

The Coloquintida, or Colocynth, is the dried fleshy part of the fruit of the Cucumis or Citrullus colocynthis. As a drug it was imported in Shakespeare's time and long before, but he may also have known the plant. Gerard seems to have grown it, though from his describing it as a native of the sandy shores of the Mediterranean, he perhaps confused it with the Squirting Cucumber (_Momordica elaterium_). It is a native of Turkey, but has been found also in Japan. It is also found in the East, and we read of it in the history of Elisha: "One went out into the field to gather herbs, and found a wild Vine, and gathered thereof wild Gourds, his lap full."[59:1] It is not quite certain what species of Gourd is here meant, but all the old commentators considered it to be the Colocynth,[59:2] the word "vine" meaning any climbing plant, a meaning that is still in common use in America.

All the tribe of Cucumbers are handsome foliaged plants, but they require room. On the Continent they are much more frequently grown in gardens than in England, but the hardy perennial Cucumber (_Cucumis perennis_) makes a very handsome carpet where the space can be spared, and the Squirting Cucumber (also hardy and perennial) is worth growing for its curious fruit. (_See also_ PUMPION.)

FOOTNOTES:

[59:1] 2 Kings iv. 39.

[59:2] "Invenitque quasi vitem sylvestrem, et collegit ex ea Colocynthidas agri."--_Vulgate._

COLUMBINE.

(1) _Armado._

I am that flower,

_Dumain._

That Mint.

_Longaville._

That Columbine.

_Love's Labour's Lost_, act v, sc. 2 (661).

(2) _Ophelia._

There's Fennel for you and Columbines.

_Hamlet_, act iv, sc. 5 (189).

This brings us to one of the most favourite of our old-fashioned English flowers. It is very doubtful whether it is a true native, but from early times it has been "carefully nursed up in our gardens for the delight both of its forme and colours" (Parkinson); yet it had a bad character, as we see from two passages quoted by Steevens--

"What's that--a Columbine?
No! that thankless flower grows not in my garden."

_All Fools_, by CHAPMAN, 1605.

and again in the 15th Song of Drayton's "Polyolbion"--

"The Columbine amongst they sparingly do set."

Spenser gave it a better character. Among his "gardyn of sweet floures, that dainty odours from them threw around," he places--

"Her neck lyke to a bounch of Cullambynes."

And, still earlier, Skelton (1463-1529) spoke of it with high praise--

"She is the Vyolet,
The Daysy delectable,
The Columbine commendable,
The Ielofer amyable."--_Phyllip Sparrow._

Both the English and the Latin names are descriptive of the plant. Columbine, or the Dove-plant, calls our attention to the "resemblance of its nectaries to the heads of pigeons in a ring round a dish, a favourite device of ancient artists" (Dr. Prior); or to "the figure of a hovering dove with expanded wings, which we obtain by pulling off a single petal with its attached sepals" (Lady Wilkinson); though it may also have had some reference to the colour, as the word is used by Chaucer--

"Come forth now with thin eyghen Columbine."

_The Marchaundes Tale_ (190).

The Latin name, _Aquilegia_, is generally supposed to come from _aquilegus_, a water-collector, alluding to the water-holding powers of the flower; it may, however, be derived from _aquila_, an eagle, but this seems more doubtful.

As a favourite garden flower, the Columbine found its way into heraldic blazonry. "It occurs in the crest of the old Barons Grey of Vitten, as may be seen in the garter coat of William Grey of Vitten" (Camden Society 1847), and is thus described in the Painter's bill for the ceremonial of the funeral of William Lord Grey of Vitten (MS. Coll. of Arms, i, 13, fol. 35a): "Item, his creste with the favron, or, sette on a leftehande glove, argent, out thereof issuyinge, caste over threade, a braunch of Collobyns, blue, the stalk vert." Old Gwillim also enumerates the Columbine among his "Coronary Herbs," as follows: "He beareth argent, a chevron sable between three Columbines slipped proper, by the name of Hall of Coventry. The Columbine is pleasing to the eye, as well in respect of the seemly (and not vulgar) shape as in regard of the azury colour thereof, and is holden to be very medicinable for the dissolving of imposthumations or swellings in the throat."

As a garden plant the Columbine still holds a favourite place. Hardy, handsome, and easy of cultivation, it commends itself to the most ornamental as well as to the cottage garden, and there are so many different sorts (both species and varieties) that all tastes may be suited. Of the common species (A. vulgaris) there are double and single, blue, white, and red; there is the beautiful dwarf A. Pyrenaica, never exceeding six inches in height, but of a very rich deep blue; there are the red and yellow ones (A. Skinneri and A. formosa) from North America; and, to mention no more, there are the lovely A. coerulea and the grand A. chrysantha from the Rocky Mountains, certainly two of the most desirable acquisitions to our hardy flowers that we have had in late years.

CORK.

(1) _Rosalind._

I prythee take the Cork out of thy mouth, that I may hear thy
tidings.

_As You Like It_, act iii, sc. 2 (213).

(2) _Clown._

As you'ld thrust a Cork into a hogshead.

_Winter's Tale_, act iii, sc. 3 (95).

(3) _Cornwall._

Bind fast his Corky arms.

_King Lear_, act iii, sc. 7 (28).

It is most probable that Shakespeare had no further acquaintance with the Cork tree than his use of Corks. The living tree was not introduced into England till the latter part of the seventeenth century, yet is very fairly described both by Gerard and Parkinson. The Cork, however, was largely imported, and was especially used for shoes. Not only did "shoemakers put it in shoes and pantofles for warmness sake," but for its lightness it was used for the high-heeled shoes of the fashionable ladies. I suppose from the following lines that these shoes were a distinguishing part of a bride's trousseau--

"Strip off my bride's array,
My Cork-shoes from my feet,
And, gentle mother, be not coy
To bring my winding sheet."

_The Bride's Burial_--Roxburghe Ballads.

The Cork tree is a necessary element in all botanic gardens, but as an ornamental tree it is not sufficiently distinct from the Ilex. Though a native of the South of Europe it is hardy in England.

CORN.

(1) _Gonzalo._

No use of metal, Corn, or wine, or oil.

_Tempest_, act ii, sc. 1 (154).

(2) _Duke._

Our Corn's to reap, for yet our tithe's to sow.

_Measure for Measure_, act iv, sc. 1 (76).

(3) _Titania._

Playing on pipes of Corn, (67)

* * * * *

The green Corn
Hath rotted ere his youth attained a beard.

_Midsummer Night's Dream_, act ii, sc. 1 (94).

(4) _K. Edward._

What valiant foemen, like to autumn's Corn,
Have we mowed down in tops of all their pride!

_3rd Henry VI_, act v, sc. 7 (3).

(5) _Pucelle._

Talk like the vulgar sort of market men
That come to gather money for their Corn.

_1st Henry VI_, act iii, sc. 2 (4).

Poor market folks that come to sell their Corn.

_Ibid._ (14).

Good morrow, gallants! want ye Corn for bread?

_Ibid._ (41).

_Burgundy._

I trust, ere long, to choke thee with thine own,
And make thee curse the harvest of that Corn.

_Ibid._ (46).

(6) _Duchess._

Why droops my lord like over-ripened Corn
Hanging the head at Ceres' plenteous load?

_2nd Henry VI_, act i, sc. 2. (1).

(7) _Warwick._

His well-proportioned beard made rough and ragged
Like to the summer's Corn by tempest lodged.

_2nd Henry VI_, act iii, sc. 2 (175).

(8) _Mowbray._

We shall be winnow'd with so rough a wind
That even our Corn shall seem as light as chaff.

_2nd Henry IV_, act iv, sc. 1 (194).

(9) _Macbeth._

Though bladed Corn be lodged and trees blown down.

_Macbeth_, act iv, sc. 1 (55).

(10) _Longaville._

He weeds the Corn, and still lets grow the weeding.

_Love's Labour's Lost_, act i, sc. 1 (96).

(11) _Biron._

Allons! allons! sowed Cockle reap'd no Corn.

_Ibid._, act iv, sc 3 (383).

(12) _Edgar._

Sleepest or wakest thou, jolly shepherd?
Thy sheep be in the Corn.

_King Lear_, act iii, sc. 6 (43).

(13) _Cordelia._

All the idle weeds that grow
In our sustaining Corn.

_Ibid._, act iv, sc. 4 (6).

(14) _Demetrius._

First thrash the Corn, then after burn the straw.

_Titus Andronicus_, act ii, sc. 3 (123).

(15) _Marcus._

O, let me teach you how to knit again
This scattered Corn into one mutual sheaf.

_Ibid._, act v, sc. 3 (70).

(16) _Pericles._

Our ships are stored with Corn to make your needy bread.

_Pericles_, act i, sc. 4 (95).

(17) _Cleon._

Your grace that fed my country with your Corn.

_Ibid._, act iii, sc. 3 (18).

(18) _Menenius._

For Corn at their own rates.

_Coriolanus_, act i, sc. 1 (193).

_Marcus._

The gods sent not Corn for the rich men only.

_Ibid._ (211).

_Marcus._

The Volsces have much Corn.

_Ibid._ (253).

_Citizen._

We stood up about the Corn.

_Ibid._, act ii, sc. 3 (16).

_Brutus._

Corn was given them gratis.

_Ibid._, act iii, sc. 1 (43).

_Coriolanus._

Tell me of Corn!

_Ibid._ (61).

The Corn of the storehouse gratis.

_Ibid._ (125).

The Corn was not our recompense.

_Ibid._ (120).

This kind of service
Did not deserve Corn gratis.

_Coriolanus_, act iii, sc. 1 (124).

(19) _Cranmer._

I am right glad to catch this good occasion
Most thoroughly to be winnow'd, where my chaff
And Corn shall fly asunder.

_Henry VIII_, act v, sc. 1 (110).

(20) _Cranmer._

Her foes shake like a field of beaten Corn
And hang their heads with sorrow.

_Ibid._, act v, sc. 4 (32).

(21) _K. Richard._

We'll make foul weather with despised tears;
Our sighs and they shall lodge the summer Corn.

_Richard II_, act iii, sc. 3 (161).

(22) _Arcite._

And run
Swifter then winde upon a field of Corne
(Curling the wealthy eares) never flew.

_Two Noble Kinsmen_, act ii, sc. 3 (91).

(23)

As Corn o'ergrown by weeds, so heedful fear
Is almost choked by unresisted lust.

_Lucrece_ (281).

I have made these quotations as short as possible. They could not be omitted, but they require no comment.

COWSLIP.

(1) _Burgundy._

The even mead that erst brought sweetly forth
The freckled Cowslip, Burnet, and green Clover.

_Henry V_, act v, sc. 2 (48).

(2) _Queen._

The Violets, Cowslips, and the Primroses,
Bear to my closet.

_Cymbeline_, act i, sc. 5 (83).

(3) _Iachimo._

On her left breast
A mole, cinque-spotted, like the crimson drops
I' the bottom of a Cowslip.

_Ibid._, act ii, sc. 2 (37).

(4) _Ariel._

Where the bee sucks there suck I,
In a Cowslip's bell I lie.

_Tempest_, act v, sc. 1 (88).

(5) _Thisbe._

Those yellow Cowslip cheeks.

_Midsummer Night's Dream_, act v, sc. 1 (339).

(6) _Fairy._

The Cowslips tall her pensioners be;
In their gold coats spots you see;
Those be rubies, fairy favours,
In those freckles live their savours;
I must go seek some dewdrops here,
And hang a pearl in every Cowslip's ear.

_Midsummer Night's Dream_, act ii, sc. 1 (10).[65:1]