The plant-lore & garden-craft of Shakespear by Henry Nicholson Ellacombe (top romance novels .TXT) đź“•
[4:1] Perhaps the most noteworthy plant omitted is Tobacco--Shakespeare must have been well acquainted with it, not only as every one in his day knew of it, but as a friend and companion of Ben Jonson, he must often have been in the company of smokers. Ben Jonson has frequent allusions to it, and almost all the sixteenth-century writers have something to say about it; but Shakespeare never names the herb, or alludes to it in any way whatever.
[4:2] It seems probable that the Lily of the Valley was not recognized as a British plant in Shakespeare's time, and was very little grown even in gardens. Turner says, "Ephemer[=u] is called in duch meyblumle, in french Muguet. It groweth plentuously in Germany, but not in England that ever I coulde see, savinge in my Lordes gardine at Syon. The Poticaries in Germany do name it Lilium C[=o]vallium, it may be called in englishe May Lilies."--Names of Herbes, 1548. Coghan in 1596 says much the same: "I say nothing of them
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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. fœtidissima), 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—
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 leasThe 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.)—
Yt spryngyth Ä« 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 liveWith 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 fœtid 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]
Chaucer, Man of Lawes Tale.
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
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