but civil count, civil as an orange, and something of that jealous complexion. Much Ado About Nothing, II. i. 303. The other is an allusion to an orange saleswoman under the name of an 66 orange wife" (Coriolanus, II. i. 77). Many flowers of various kinds were used for wedding wreaths. It is only of recent years that orange blossom, real or artificial, has been considered the flower par excellence. Among the Saxon people wreaths were kept in the churches, and sometimes blessed and sprinkled with holy water. Myrtle was used abroad and corn-ears in England (see Brand, vol. ii., p. 124). The beautiful old-fashioned garden shrub, the mock orange (Philadelphus coronarius, L.), was, no doubt, used in this connection also. But not only was the orange grown to eat of or its flowers used in the wedding ceremony: it was also used for medicine and as a scent. Thus : "Take fresh flowres of Rosemarye pounde twoo, amber a scrupule, three pounde of the flowres of oranges, lemons and citrons, all confuselyve together whyche the Frenche menne call eau de naphe, leave all together in somme vesselle welle steepte tenne dayes. Thenne the water beynge dystylled in Baheo Marie lette it bee kepte in a vyolle of glasse very close and stopped" (Alexis, 146 in d.). Of the former we get a curious cure : "For Biliousness and Cattsheare.-Take a cytron or orange, and parte hym in the myddes, take a lyttle towe in a dyshe, and . . presse or wryng it in your hand, and put to it a lyttell commune salt well beaten to powder, and laye it so hotte upon the sore, puttyng uppon the sayde towe halfe the citron or orange, and so bynde all this with some bande, chaungynge it evenynge and mornynge, and inconti nente the corrupte matter wylle dissolve" (Alexis, i. 34, in d.). Once only is the lemon (Citrus acida, L.) referred to, and that in Love's Labour's Lost, V. ii. 653. It is closely allied to the orange, but a native of the continent of Asia. The word is derived from its Armenian name, laimun; French, limon. It was introduced into Europe in much the same way and about the same time as the orange. The pomegranate is mentioned three times by the poet, first in the humorous lines: Go to, sir, you were beaten in Italy for picking a kernel out of a pomegranate. All's Well that Ends Well, II. iii. 275. And twice in reference to the shrub, once in 1 Henry IV., II. iv. 41, and again in Romeo and Juliet, III. v. 4 : It was the nightingale, and not the lark, That pierced the fearful hollow of thine ear; No tree exceeds the pomegranate (Punica Granatum, L.) in beauty; none has a richer history or has been more admired and loved. Far back in the earliest palaces of Assyria and Babylonia we find it used as a mysterious and sacred decoration on the robes of deities and demi-gods. From thence it was carried into the Jewish worship and religion, both of tabernacle and temple. Nor was it any the less beloved and honoured in Egypt. It has a place, moreover, in English heraldry as the royal badge of Katherine of Arragon, who derived it from the armes parlantes of Grenada, Argent, a pomegranate vert (now gules), seeded and slipped proper. Turner, in the "Grete Herball," says: "Pomegranat trees growe plentuously in Italy and in Spayne, and there are certayne in my Lorde's gardene at Lyon, but their fruite cometh never with perfection." So that Shakespeare may well have seen and known the tree, though not in fruit. "AS FEBRUARY A February face, So full of frost, of storm and cloudiness? S the day lengthens the cold strengthens" is the country proverb, and it is often true. The great ice fair on the Thames lasted well into this month; but, nevertheless, the first signs of reawakening life commence. The "lambs' tails' of our childhood and the golden gorse are in flower, and even the rosemary in very sheltered nooks, and to these we can add one or two other plants the poet names, which do not seem to have any more fitting resting-place-a round dozen Shakespeare's references to the hazel mount to-under the name of filbert, nut. The first name, filbert, is derived from a barbarous rendering of feuille leaf and beard, to denote its distinguishing peculiarity, the permanent leafy calyx; others say it is derived from King Philibert, but why they do not explain. Nut (Saxon, knut, connected with "knot ") implies a mere hard, round lump; and hazel (Saxon, hæst or hæsel, from hase, a husk, or has, a behest), a hazel-stick being in general use in management of slaves and cattle. Only twice is the word "hazel" used-viz., in the pretty comparison of the fiery Kate, who, Like the hazel-twig Is straight and slender and as brown in hue Taming of the Shrew, II. i. 255. And the word "filbert" occurs but once (Tempest, II. ii. 175): I'll bring thee clustering filberts. The other reference is to the nut, where, in Romeo and Juliet, I. iv. 67, an empty hazel-nut is Queen Mab's chariot Made by the joiner squirrel or old grub, Time out o' mind the fairies' coachmakers. A nut unadorned by any phrase is named in the Comedy of Errors, IV. iii. 72, as one of the requirements of devils: Some devils ask but the parings of one's nails, And again: I have a venturesome fairy that shall seek And yet again in Romeo and Juliet, III. i. 20: Wilt thou quarrel with a man for cracking nuts, having no other reason but because thou hast hazel eyes. As a fusty, sour, and worm-eaten nut, we find several references, chiefly 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, II. i. 110. Sweetest nut hath sourest rind, As You Like It, III. ii. 115. Among the Old World customs connected with this tree must be mentioned, going a nutting on |