cowslip; flower-de-lices,1 and lilies of all natures; rosemary-flowers; the tulippa; the double piony; the pale daffodil; the French honeysuckle; the cherry-tree in blossom; the dammasin2 and plumtrees in blossom; the white thorn in leaf; the lilac-tree. In May and June come pinks of all sorts, specially the blush-pink; roses of all kinds, except the musk, which comes later; honeysuckles; strawberries; bugloss; columbine; the French marigold; flos Africanus; 3 cherry-tree in 1 "Now, my fair'st friend, I would I had some flowers o' the spring that might Your maidenhoods growing:--0 Proserpina, For th' flowers now, that, frighted, thou lett'st fall That come before the swallow dares, and take Or Cytherea's breath; pale primroses, Shakspere. The Winter's Tale. iv. 3. Flower-de-lices. Since both Bacon and Shakspere refer to the flower-de-luce as a lily, it is clear that for them the iris had not yet wholly appropriated the name. Their fleur-de-lis may have been the same as Chaucer's, the Lilium Candidum, the common white lily. "His nekke whit was as the flour-de-tys," Chaucer writes of the singing friar. The Prologue. 238. The damson is a small 2 Dammasin. The damson plum-tree. black or dark purple plum, the fruit of Prunus Communis, or Domestica. The particular variety, Damascena, was introduced in very early times into Greece and Italy from Syria. "Gloster. Mass, thou lovedst plums well, that wouldst venture so. Simpcox. Alas, good master, my wife desired some damsons, And made me climb, with danger of my life." Shakspere. II. King Henry VI. ii. 1. 3 Flos Africanus. The Latin translation reads Flos Africanus, simplex et multiplex, and omits "the French marigold." It would seem then that by Flos Africanus, or 'African flower,' Bacon meant the African marigold (Tagetes Erecta); the French marigold is Tagetes Patula. Or possibly, the French marigold was called the 1 fruit; ribes; figs in fruit; rasps; 5 2 vine-flowers; lavender in flowers; the sweet satyrian,3 with the white flowers; herba muscaria; lilium convallium; the apple-tree in blossom. In July come gilliflowers of all varieties; musk-roses; the lime-tree in blossom; early pears and plums in fruit; genitings, quadlins." In August come plums of all sorts in fruit; pears; apricocks; 8 6 'African flower' in Bacon's time, and the modern punctuation is at fault. Shakspere's "marigold that goes to bed wi' th' sun" was a different flower, Calendula Officinalis, one of the Compositae. It is a common flower in country gardens, of a deep yellow color; the name, Calendula, means 'little calendar,' or 'little weather-glass,' referring to its opening with the sun and shutting with the dew. 1 Ribes. Currants. 3 Satyrian. Sacyreia Hortensis, or Summer Savory, a low and homely sweet herb, with pale or purplish flowers. Like lavender, sweet marjoram, and other aromatic herbs, it is used in English gardens in mass to fill a border. The border in an English garden needs to be filled, because it is not the mere edge of a flower-bed; it is a strip of ground, often several feet wide, forming a fringe to the general area within laid out in flower-plots, or otherwise, and separated from it by a path. 4 Herba muscaria. Muscari Botryoides, the Grape-Hyacinth, or Globe-Hyacinth, of the Lily family, a common little garden flower of early spring, with a dense raceme of dark blue flowers, like a minute cluster of grapes. It is now naturalized in the United States. 5 Lilium convallium. The convall lily, convally; lily of the valley. Jenneting. Genitings. Apparently from the French Jean or Jeannet, in pomme de Saint-Jean, "S. John's apple, a kind of sooneripe Sweeting." Cotgrave. A kind of early apple. "Yet, tho' I spared thee all the spring, Thy sole delight is, sitting still, With that cold dagger of thy bill, Quadlin, or Codling, codlin. The codling is a variety of apple in shape elongated and rather tapering towards the eye, having several sub-varieties, as Kentish codling, Keswick codling. "As a squash is before 't is a peascod, or a codling when 't is almost an apple." Shakspere. Twelfth Night. i. 5. 8 Apricocks. The fruit of the apricot, Prunus Armeniaca, or Armenian Plum. It is roundish-oval in shape, orange-colored, and has a delicious flavor. 'Feed him with apricocks and dewberries, iii. 1. 1 berberries; 1 filberds; musk-melons; monks-hoods,2 of all colours. In September come grapes; apples; poppies of all colours; peaches; melocotones; 3 4 In nectarines; cornelians; wardens;5 quinces. October, and the beginning of November come services; medlars; bullaces; roses cut or removed to come late; holly-oaks; and such like. These The barberry 1 Berberry. (Berberis Vulgaris), commonly spelled and pronounced 'barberry.' It is a shrub that is found native in Europe and North America, with spiny shoots, and pendulous racemes of small yellow flowers, succeeded by oblong, red, sharply acid berries. 2 Monk's-hood. Aconite, of the Ranunculaceae, or Crowfoot family. In England monk's-hood is especially Aconitum Napellus, which is also called friar's-cap, fox-bane, helmet-flower, Jacob's chariot and wolf's-bane. Gray records two American aconites, Aconitum Uncinatum, or Wild Monk's-hood, with blue flowers, and Aconitum Reclinatum, or Trailing Wolf's-bane, with white flowers. 3 Melocotone. Melocoton, or Melocotoon, a large kind of peach. "A wife here with a strawberry breath, cherry lips, apricot cheeks, and a soft, velvet head, like a melicotton." Ben Jonson. Bartholomew Fair. i. 1. 4 Nectarine. A variety of the common peach, from which its fruit differs only in having a rind devoid of down, and a firmer pulp. Both fruits are sometimes found growing on the same tree. 5 Wardens. The warden is a large pear used chiefly for roasting or baking. Cotgrave defined this pear as "poire de garde, a warden, or winter peare, a peare which may be kept verie long." "I must have saffron to colour the warden-pies." Shakspere. The Winter's Tale. iv. 2. 6 Services. The fruit of Pyrus (Sorbus) Domestica, a tree that belongs to continental Europe. It grows from twenty to sixty feet high, has leaves like those of the mountain ash or rowan tree, and bears a small pear-shaped or apple-shaped fruit, which, like the medlar, is pleasant only in an over-ripe condition. 7 Medlars. The fruit of the medlar, a small bushy tree, Mespilus Germanica, related to the crab-apple, cultivated in gardens for its fruit. The fruit resembles a small, brown-skinned apple, but with a broad disk at the summit surrounded by the remains of the calix lobes. When first gathered, it is harsh and uneatable, but in the early stages of decay it acquires an acid flavor relished by some. 8 Bullaces. The wild plum (Prunus Insititia), larger than the sloe, well known in England as a semi-cultivated fruit; there are two varieties, the black or dark blue, and the white. Like the persimmon, the bullace is astringent until frost comes. 9 Holly-oaks. Hollyhocks (Althea Rosea), the well-known garden flower widely cultivated in many varieties, with showy blossoms of various tints of red, purple, yellow, and white. particulars are for the climate of London; but my meaning is perceived, that you may have ver perpetuum,1 as the place affords. And because the breath of flowers is far sweeter in the air (where it comes and goes like the warbling of music) than in the hand, therefore nothing is more fit for that delight, than to know what be the flowers and plants that do best perfume the air. Roses, damask and red, are fast 2 flowers of their smells; so that you may walk by a whole row of them, and find nothing of their sweetness; yea3 though it be in a morning's dew. Bays likewise yield no smell as they grow. Rosemary little; nor sweet marjoram.5 That which above all others yields the sweetest smell in the air, is the violet, specially the white double violet, which comes twice a year; about the middle of April, and about Bartholomew-tide. Next to that is the musk-rose. 1 Perpetual spring. 2 Fast. Firm; tenacious. quit you like men, be strong." 3 Yea. Not this alone; not "Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, I. Corinthians xvi. 13. only so, but also; what is more. "Many of you, yea, most, return no more." Tennyson. The Holy Grail. 4 Bay, also called Sweet Bay, the Laurus Nobilis, an arborescent shrub cultivated in English gardens, with deep green leaves and a profusion of dark purple berries. The leaves, when crushed or bruised give out the odor of cinnamon, and on this account, together with their beauty, they were used in olden times to garnish dishes for a banquet. The Bible refers to the very ancient superstition that the flourishing of the bay tree meant good, and its withering, evil. "I have seen the wicked in great power, and spreading himself like a green bay tree. "Yet he passed away, and, lo, he was not: yea, I sought him, but he could not be found." Psalms xxxvii. 35 and 36. Sweet marjoram. A plant of the mint family, Origanum Majorana, peculiarly aromatic and fragrant, flowers purplish pink. St. Bartholomew's day, August 24 O. S. Then the strawberry-leaves dying, with a most excellent cordial smell. Then the flower of the vines; it is a little dust, like the dust of a bent, which grows upon the cluster in the first coming forth. Then sweet-briar. Then wall-flowers, which are very delightful to be set under a parlour or lower chamber window. Then pinks and gilliflowers,1 specially the matted pink and clove gilliflower. Then the flowers of the lime-tree. Then the honeysuckles, so they be somewhat afar off. Of beanflowers 2 I speak not, because they are field flowers. But those which perfume the air most delightfully, not passed by as the rest, but being trodden upon 1 Gilliflowers. Gillyflower is a name that has been applied to various plants whose blossoms smell like the clove (Old French, girofle, or clove), and especially to the clove-scented pink, Dianthus Caryophyllus, or Clove-gilly flower. The clove-gillyflower is the original of the carnation and other double pinks in cultivation, and it is the gillyflower of Chaucer, Spenser, Shakspere, and Bacon. "The fair'st flowers o' the season Are our carnations, and streak'd gillyvors." Shakspere. The Winter's Tale. iv. 3. In those dialects in which the name gillyflower is still current, it is commonly applied, either to the Wall-flower (Cheiranthus Cheiri), or Wall-Gillyflower, or to the White Stock (Matthiola Incana), or Stock-Gillyflower. Bacon's garden contains all three, pinks, stocks, and wall-flowers. The wall-flower is a native of southern Europe, where its deep orange-yellow flowers light up old walls and cliffs. In cultivation, the flowers range in color from pale yellow to deep red, and are clustered in short racemes. Wall-flowers are "delightful to be set" under windows because of their sweet ɔdor. 2 Bean-flower. Vicia Faba, or Faba Vulgaris, a bean which has been cultivated in England for centuries as food for cattle, just as Indian corn is grown in the United States. In A MidsummerNight's Dream, ii. 1, Shakspere refers to "a fat and bean-fed horse." "Long let us walk, Where the breeze blows from yon extended field Of blossomed beans. Arabia cannot boast A fuller gale of joy, than, liberal, thence Breathes through the sense, and takes the ravish'd soul." James Thomson. The Seasons. Spring. |