The plant-lore & garden-craft of Shakespeare Part 68

FOOTNOTES:

[191:1] In an "Account of Gardens Round London in 1691," published in the "Archaeologia," vol. xii., these Orange trees are described as if always under gla.s.s.

[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, and The 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 n.o.ble 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 shed Thy wife and children's blood.

_Coriola.n.u.s_, act v, sc. 3 (117).

(4) _Ca.s.sius._

And bear the Palm alone.

_Julius Caesar_, 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._--Enter, 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 pa.s.sages may be added the following, in which the Palm tree is certainly alluded to though it is not mentioned by name--

_Sebastian._

That in Arabia There is one tree, the Phnix' throne; one Phnix 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.

"Let the bird of loudest lay On the sole Arabian tree Herald sad and Trumpet be, To whose sound chaste wings obey."