The plant-lore & garden-craft of Shakespeare Part 73

_Caliban._

I prythee let me bring thee where Crabs grow; And I with my long nails will dig thee Pig-nuts.

_Tempest_, act ii, sc. 2 (171).

Pig-nuts or Earth-nuts are the tuberous roots of Conopodium denudatum (_Bunium flexuosum_), a common weed in old upland pastures; it is found also in woods. This root is really of a pleasant flavour when first eaten, but leaves an unpleasant taste in the mouth. It is said to be much improved by roasting, and to be then quite equal to Chestnuts. Yet it is not much prized in England except by pigs and children, who do not mind the trouble of digging for it. But the root lies deep, and the stalk above it is very brittle, and "when the little 'howker' breaks the white shank he at once desists from his attempt to reach the root, for he believes that it will elude his search by sinking deeper and deeper into the ground" (Johnston). I have never heard of its being cultivated in England, but it is cultivated in some European countries, and much prized as a wholesome and palatable root.

PINE.

(1) _Prospero._

She did confine thee,

Into a cloven Pine;

It was mine art, When I arrived and heard thee, that made gape The Pine and let thee out.

_Tempest_, act i, sc. 2 (273).

(2) _Suffolk._

Thus droops this lofty Pine and hangs his sprays.

_2nd Henry VI_, act ii, sc. 3 (45).

(3) _Prospero._

And by the spurs plucked up The Pine and Cedar.

_Tempest_, act v, sc. 1 (47).

(4) _Agamemnon._

As knots, by the conflux of meeting sap, Infect the sound Pine and divert his grain Tortive and errant from his course of growth.

_Troilus and Cressida_, act i, sc. 3 (7).

(5) _Antony._

Where yonder Pine does stand I shall discover all.

This Pine is bark'd That overtopped them all.

_Antony and Cleopatra_, act iv, sc. 12 (23).

(6) _Belarius._

As the rudest wind That by the top doth take the mountain Pine, And make him stoop to the vale.

_Cymbeline_, act iv, sc. 2 (174).

(7) _1st Lord._

Behind the tuft of Pines I met them.

_Winter's Tale_, act ii, sc. 1 (33).

(8) _Richard._

But when from under this terrestrial ball He fires the proud top of the eastern Pines.

_Richard II_, act iii, sc. 2 (41).

(9) _Antonio._

You may as well forbid the mountain Pines To wag their high tops and to make no noise, When they are fretten with the gusts of heaven.

_Merchant of Venice_, act iv, sc. 1 (75).

(10)

Ay me! the bark peel'd from the lofty Pine, His leaves will wither, and his sap decay; So must my soul, her bark being peel'd away.

_Lucrece_ (1167).

In No. 8 is one of those delicate touches which show Shakespeare's keen observation of nature, in the effect of the rising sun upon a group of Pine trees. Mr. Ruskin says that with the one exception of Wordsworth no other English poet has noticed this. Wordsworth's lines occur in one of his minor poems on leaving Italy--

"My thoughts become bright like yon edging of Pines On the steep's lofty verge--how it blackened the air!

But touched from behind by the sun, it now s.h.i.+nes With threads that seem part of its own silver hair."