The plant-lore & garden-craft of Shakespeare Part 41

Thou wilt quarrel with a man for cracking Nuts, having no other reason but because thou hast Hazel eyes.

_Romeo and Juliet_, act iii, sc. 1 (20).

(8) _Thersites._

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_, act ii, sc. 1 (109).

(9) _Gonzalo._

I'll warrant him for drowning; though the s.h.i.+p were no stronger than a Nut-sh.e.l.l.

_Tempest_, act i, sc. 1 (49).

(10) _t.i.tania._

I have a venturous fairy that shall seek The squirrel's h.o.a.rd, and fetch thee new Nuts.

_Midsummer Night's Dream_, act iv, sc. 1 (40).

(11) _Hamlet._

O G.o.d, I could be bounded in a Nut-sh.e.l.l and count myself a king of infinite s.p.a.ce, were it not that I have bad dreams.

_Hamlet_, act ii, sc. 2 (260).

(12) _Dromio of Syracuse._

Some devils ask but the parings 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).

Dr. Prior has decided that "'Filbert' is a barbarous compound of _phillon_ or _feuille_, a leaf, and _beard_, to denote its distinguis.h.i.+ng peculiarity, the leafy involucre projecting beyond the nut." But in the times before Shakespeare the name was more poetically said to be derived from the nymph Phyllis. Nux Phyllidos is its name in the old vocabularies, and Gower ("Confessio Amantis") tells us why--

"Phyllis in the same throwe Was shape into a Nutte-tree, That alle men it might see; And after Phyllis philliberde, This tre was cleped in the yerde"

(Lib. quart.),

and so Spenser spoke of it as "'Phillis' philbert" (Elegy 17).[115:1]

The Nut, the Filbert, and the Cobnut, are all botanically the same, and the two last were cultivated in England long before Shakespeare's time, not only for the fruit, but also, and more especially, for the oil.

There is a peculiarity in the growth of the Nut that is worth the notice of the botanical student. The male blossoms, or catkins (anciently called "agglettes or blowinges"), are mostly produced at the ends of the year's shoots, while the pretty little crimson female blossoms are produced close to the branch; they are completely sessile or unstalked.

Now in most fruit trees, when a flower is fertilized, the fruit is produced exactly in the same place, with respect to the main tree, that the flower occupied; a Peach or Apricot, for instance, rests upon the branch which bore the flower. But in the Nut a different arrangement prevails. As soon as the flower is fertilized it starts away from the parent branch; a fresh branch is produced, bearing leaves and the Nut or Nuts at the end, so that the Nut is produced several inches away from the spot on which the flower originally was. I know of no other tree that produces its fruit in this way, nor do I know what special benefit to the plant arises from this arrangement.

Much folk-lore has gathered round the Hazel tree and the Nuts. The cracking of Nuts, with much fortune-telling connected therewith, was the favourite amus.e.m.e.nt on All Hallow's Eve (Oct. 31), so that the Eve was called Nutcrack Night. I believe the custom still exists; it certainly has not been very long abolished, for the Vicar of Wakefield and his neighbours "religiously cracked Nuts on All Hallow's Eve."

And in many places "an ancient custom prevailed of going a Nutting on Holy Rood Day (Sept. 14), which it was esteemed quite unlucky to omit."--FORSTER.[116:1]

A greater mystery connected with the Hazel is the divining rod, for the discovery of water and metals. This has always by preference been a forked Hazel-rod, though sometimes other rods are subst.i.tuted. The belief in its power dates from a very early period, and is by no means extinct. The divining-rod is said to be still used in Cornwall, and firmly believed in; nor has this belief been confined to the uneducated.

Even Linnaeus confessed himself to be half a convert to it, and learned treatises have been written accepting the facts, and accounting for them by electricity or some other subtle natural agency. Most of us, however, will rather agree with Evelyn's cautious verdict, that the virtues attributed to the forked stick "made out so solemnly by the attestation of magistrates, and divers other learned and credible persons, who have critically examined matters of fact, is certainly next to a miracle, and requires a strong faith."

FOOTNOTES:

[115:1] "Hic fullus--a fylberd-tre."--_Nominale_, 15th cent.

"Fylberde, notte--Fillum."

"Filberde, tre--Phillis."--_Promptorium Parvulorum._

"The Filbyrdes hangyng to the ground."--_Squyr of Lowe Degre_ (37).

[116:1] See a long account of the connection of nuts with All Hallow's Eve in Hanson, "Med. aevi Calend." i. 363.

HEATH.

_Gonzalo._

Now would I give a thousand furlongs of sea for an acre of barren ground, long Heath, brown Furze, anything.

_Tempest_, act i, sc. 1 (70).

There are other pa.s.sages in which the word Heath occurs in Shakespeare, but in none else is the flower referred to; the other references are to an open heath or common. And in this place no special Heath can be selected, unless by "long Heath" we suppose him to have meant the Ling (_Calluna vulgaris_). And this is most probable, for so Lyte calls it.

"There is in this countrie two kindes of Heath, one which beareth the flowres alongst the stemmes, and is called Long Heath." But it is supposed by some that the correct reading is "Ling, Heath," &c., and in that case Heath will be a generic word, meaning any of the British species (_see_ LING). Of British species there are five, and wherever they exist they are dearly prized as forming a rich element of beauty in our landscapes. They are found all over the British Islands, and they seem to be quite indifferent as to the place of their growth. They are equally beautiful in the extreme Highlands of Scotland, or on the Quantock and Exmoor Hills of the South--everywhere they clothe the hill-sides with a rich garment of purple that is wonderfully beautiful, whether seen under the full influence of the brightest suns.h.i.+ne, or under the dark shadows of the blackest thundercloud. And the botanical geography of the Heath tribe is very remarkable; it is found over the whole of Europe, in Northern Asia, and in Northern Africa. Then the tribe takes a curious leap, being found in immense abundance, both of species and individuals, in Southern Africa, while it is entirely absent from North and South America. Not a single species has been found in the New World. A few plants of Calluna vulgaris have been found in Newfoundland and Ma.s.sachusetts, but that is not a true Heath.

As a garden plant the Heath has been strangely neglected. Many of the species are completely hardy, and will make pretty evergreen bushes of from 2ft. to 4ft. high, but they are better if kept close-grown by constant clipping. The species best suited for this treatment are E.

Mediterranea, E. arborea, and E. codonoides. Of the more humble-growing species, E. vagans (the Cornish Heath) will grow easily in most gardens, though in its native habitat it is confined to the serpentine formation; nor must we omit E. herbacea, which also will grow anywhere, and, if clipped yearly after flowering, will make a most beautiful border to any flower-bed; or it may be used more extensively, as it is at Doddington Park, in Gloucesters.h.i.+re (Sir Gerald Codrington's), where there is a large s.p.a.ce in front of the house, several yards square, entirely filled with E. herbacea. When this is in flower (and it is so for nearly two months, or sometimes more) the effect, as seen from above, is of the richest Turkey carpet, but of such a colour and harmony as no Turkey carpet ever attained.

Several of the South-European Heaths were cultivated in England in Shakespeare's time.

HEBENON OR HEBONA.[118:1]

_Ghost._