The plant-lore & garden-craft of Shakespear by Henry Nicholson Ellacombe (top romance novels .TXT) ๐
[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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As to the beauty of the Orange tree, there is but one opinion. Andrew Marvel described it asโ
Like golden lamps in a green night."
Bermudas.
George Herbert drew a lesson from its power of constant fruitingโ
That busie plant;
Then should I ever laden be,
And never want
Some fruit for him that dressed me."
Employment.
And its handsome evergreen foliage, its deliciously scented flowers, and its golden fruitโ
That smelled ambrosially"โ
Tennyson.
at once demand the admiration of all. It only fails in one point to make it a plant for every garden: it is not fully hardy in England. It is very surprising to read of those first trees at Beddington, that "they were planted in the open ground, under a movable covert during the winter months; that they always bore fruit in great plenty and perfection; that they grew on the south side of a wall, not nailed against it, but at full liberty to spread; that they were 14ft. high, the girth of the stem 29in., and the spreading of the branches one way 9ft., and 12ft. another; and that they so lived till they were entirely killed by the great frost in 1739-40."โMiller.[191:1] These trees must have been of a hardy variety, for certainly Orange trees, even with such protection, do not now so grow in England, except in a few favoured places on the south coast. There is one species which is fairly hardy, the Citrus trifoliata, from Japan,[191:2] forming a pretty bush with sweet flowers, and small but useless fruit (seldom, I believe, produced out-of-doors); it is often used as a stock on which to graft the better kinds, but perhaps it might be useful for crossing, so as to give its hardiness to a variety with better flower and fruit.
Commercially the Orange holds a high place, more than 20,000 good fruit having been picked from one tree, and England alone importing about 2,000,000 bushels annually. These are almost entirely used as a dessert fruit and for marmalade, but it is curious that they do not seem to have been so used when first imported. Parkinson makes no mention of their being eaten raw, but says they "are used as sauce for many sorts of meats, in respect of the sweet sourness giving a relish and delight whereinsoever they are used;" and he mentions another curious use, no longer in fashion, I believe, but which might be worth a trial: "The seeds being cast into the grounde in the spring time will quickly grow up, and when they are a finger's length high, being pluckt up and put among Sallats, will give them a marvellous fine aromatick or spicy tast, very acceptable."[192:1]
FOOTNOTES:[191:1] In an "Account of Gardens Round London in 1691," published in the "Archรฆologia," vol. xii., these Orange trees are described as if always under glass.
[191:2] "Bot. Mag.," 6513.
[192:1] For an account of the early importation of the fruit see "Promptorium Parvulorum," p. 371, note.
OSIER, see Willow. OXLIPS. (1) Perdita. Bold Oxlips, andThe Crown Imperial. Winter's Tale, act iv, sc. 4 (125). (2) Oberon. I know a bank where the wild Thyme blows,
Where Oxlips and the nodding Violet grows. Midsummer Night's Dream, act ii, sc. 1 (249). (3) Oxlips in their cradles growing. Two Noble Kinsmen, Intro. song.
The true Oxlip (Primula eliator) is so like both the Primrose and Cowslip that it has been by many supposed to be a hybrid between the two. Sir Joseph Hooker, however, considers it a true species. It is a handsome plant, but it is probably not the "bold Oxlip" of Shakespeare, or the plant which is such a favourite in cottage gardens. The true Oxlip (P. elatior of Jacquin) is an eastern counties' plant; while the common forms of the Oxlip are hybrids between the Cowslip and Primrose. (See Cowslip and Primrose.)
PALM TREE. (1) Rosalind. Look here what I found on a Palm tree. As You Like It, act iii, sc. 2 (185). (2) Hamlet. As love between them like the Palm might flourish. Hamlet, act v, sc. 2 (40). (3) Volumnia. And bear the Palm for having bravely shedThy wife and children's blood. Coriolanus, act v, sc. 3 (117). (4) Cassius. And bear the Palm alone. Julius Cรฆsar, act i, sc. 2 (131). (5) Painter. You shall see him a Palm in Athens again, and flourish with the highest. Timon of Athens, act v, sc. 1 (12). (6) The Vision.โEnter, solemnly tripping one after another, six personages, clad in white robes, wearing on their heads garlands of Bays, and golden vizards on their faces, branches of Bays or Palm in their hands. Henry VIII, act iv, sc. 2.
To these passages may be added the following, in which the Palm tree is certainly alluded to though it is not mentioned by nameโ
Sebastian. That in ArabiaThere is one tree, the Phลnix' throne; one Phลnix
At this hour reigning there. Tempest, act iii, sc. 3 (22).[193:1]
And from the poem by Shakespeare, published in Chester's "Love's Martyr," 1601.
On the sole Arabian tree
Herald sad and Trumpet be,
To whose sound chaste wings obey."
Two very distinct trees are named in these passages. In the last five the reference is to the true Palm of Biblical and classical fame, as the emblem of victory, and the typical representation of life and beauty in the midst of barren waste and deserts. And we are not surprised at the veneration in which the tree was held, when we consider either the wonderful grace of the tree, or its many uses in its native countries, so many, that Pliny says that the Orientals reckoned 360 uses to which the Palm tree could be applied. Turner, in 1548, said: "I never saw any perfit Date tree yet, but onely a little one that never came to perfection;"[194:1] and whether Shakespeare ever saw a living Palm tree is doubtful, but he may have done so. (See Date.) Now there are a great number grown in the large houses of botanic and other gardens, the Palm-house at Kew showing more and better specimens than can be seen in any other collection in Europe: even the open garden can now boast of a few species that will endure our winters without protection. Chamรฆrops humilis and Fortunei seem to be perfectly hardy, and good specimens may be seen in several gardens; Corypha australis is also said to be quite hardy, and there is little doubt but that the Date Palm (Phลnix dactylifera), which has long been naturalized in the South of Europe, would live in Devonshire and Cornwall, and that of the thousand species of Palms growing in so many different parts of the world, some will yet be found that may grow well in the open air in England.
But the Palm tree in No. 1 is a totally different tree, and much as Shakespeare has been laughed at for placing a Palm tree in the Forest of Arden, the laugh is easily turned against those who raise such an objection. The Palm tree of the Forest of Arden is the
On Sallows in the windy gleams of March"โ
Idylls of the KingโVivien.
that is, the Early Willow (Salix caprea) and I believe it is so called all over England, as it is in Northern Germany, and probably in other northern countries. There is little doubt that the name arose from the custom of using the Willow branches with the pretty golden catkins on Palm Sunday as a substitute for Palm branches.
The Cardinals bow reverently and sing old Psalms;
Elsewhere those Psalms are sung 'mid Olive branches,
The Holly branch supplies the place among the avalanches;
More northern climes must be content with the sad Willow."
Goethe (quoted by Seeman).
But besides Willow branches, Yew branches are sometimes used for the same purpose, and so we find Yews called Palms. Evelyn says they were so called in Kent; they are still so called in Ireland, and in the churchwarden's accounts of Woodbury, Devonshire, is the following entry: "Memorandum, 1775. That a Yew or Palm tree was planted in the churchyard, ye south side of the church, in the same place where one was blown down by the wind a few days ago, this 25th of November."[195:1]
How Willow or Yew branches could ever have been substituted for such a very different branch as a Palm it is hard to say, but in lack of a better explanation, I think it not unlikely that it might have arisen from the direction for the Feast of Tabernacles in Leviticus xxiii. 40: "Ye shall take you on the first day the boughs of goodly trees, the branches of Palm trees, and the boughs of thick trees, and Willows of the brook." But from whatever cause the name and the custom was derived, the Willow was so named in very early times, and in Shakespeare's time the name was very common. Here is one instance among manyโ
The Palms and May make country houses gay,
And we hear aye birds tune this merry layโ
Cuckoo, jug-jug, pee-we, to-witta-woo."
T. Nash. 1567-1601.
FOOTNOTES:[193:1] I do not include among "Palms" the passage in Hamlet, act i, sc. 1: "In the most high and palmy state of Rome," because I bow to Archdeacon Nares' judgment that "palmy" here means "grown to full height, in allusion to the palms of the stag's horns, when they have attained to their utmost growth." He does not, however, decide this with certainty, and
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