Two Noble Kinsmen.

Here the season is distinctly stated for us by the poet. The scene is laid in May, and the flowers named are all in accordance-daffodils, daisies, marigolds, oxlips, primrose, roses, and thyme.

I cannot claim any great literary results from this inquiry into the seasons of Shakespeare as indicated by the flowers named; on the contrary, I must confess that the results are exceedingly small-I might almost say, none at all—still I do not regret the time and trouble that the inquiry has demanded of me. In every literary inquiry the value of the research is not to be measured by the visible results. It is something even to find out that there are no results, and so save trouble to future inquirers. But in this case the research has not been altogether in vain. Every addition, however small, to the critical study of our great Poet has its value; and to myself, as a student of the Natural History of Shakespeare, the inquiry has been a very pleasant one, because it has confirmed my previous opinion, that even in such common matters as the names of the most familiar every-day plants he does not write in a careless hap-hazard way, naming just the plant that comes uppermost in his thoughts, but that they are all named in the most careful and correct manner, exactly fitting into the scenes in which they are placed, and so giving to each passage a brightness and a reality which would be entirely wanting if the plants were set down in the ignorance of guess-work. Shakespeare knew the plants well; and though his knowledge is never paraded, by its very thoroughness it cannot be hid.

APPENDIX III.

NAMES OF PLANTS.

Juliet. What's in a name? That which we call a Rose

By any other name would smell as sweet.

Romeo and Juliet, act ii, sc. 2.

NAMES OF PLANTS.

INDING that many are interested in the old names of the plants named by Shakespeare, I give in this appendix the names of the plants, showing at one view how they were written and explained by different writers in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. The list might have been very largely increased, especially by giving the forms used at an earlier date, but my object is to show the forms of the names in which they were (or might have been) familiar to Shakespeare. The authors quoted are these:

1440. Promptorium Parvulorum."

1483. "Catholicon Anglicum."

1548. Turner's "Names of Herbes," and "Herbal," 1568. 1597. Gerard's "Herbal."

1611. Cotgrave's "Dictionarie."

Turner. Aconitum.

ACONITUM.

Gerard. Of Wolfes-banes and Monkeshoods.

Cotgrave. Aconit; Aconitum, A most venemous hearbe, of two principall kindės; viz., Libbard's-bane, and Wolfe

bane.

Where any of these five are omitted, that author does not name the plant. In many cases the same plant is given under different names; but I have not thought it necessary to quote more than one. In the quotations from Turner the preference is given to the " Names of Herbes," where the plant is mentioned in both works.

ACORN.

Promptorium. Accorne, or archarde, frute of the oke; Glans. Catholicon. An Acorne; hæc glans dis, hec glandicula. Cotgrave. Gland; An Acorne; Mast of Oakes or other trees.

ALMOND.

Promptorium. Almaund, frute; Amigdalum.

Catholicon. An Almond tre; amigdalus.

Turner. The Almon tree.

Gerard. The Almond tree.

Cotgrave. Amygdales; Almonds.

ALOES.

Turner. Aloe.

Gerard. Of Herbe Aloe, or Sea Houseleeke.

Cotgrave. Aloës; The hearbe Aloes, Sea Houseleeke, Sea

aigreen.

APPLE.

Promptorium. Appule, frute; Pomum, malum.

Catholicon. An Appylle; pomum, malum, pomulum.

Turner. Apple tree.

Gerard. The Apple tree.

Cotgrave. Pomme; An Apple.

APRICOTS.

Turner. Abricok.

Gerard. The Aprecocke or Abrecocke tree.

Cotgrave. Abricot; The Abricot, or Apricocke Plum.

ASH.

Promptorium. Asche tre; Fraxinus.

Turner. Ashe tree.

Gerard. The Ash tree.

Cotgrave. Fraisne; An Ash tree.

ASPEN.

Promptorium. Aspe tre; Tremulus.

Turner. Asp tree.

Gerard. The Aspen tree.

Cotgrave. Tremble; An Aspe or Aspen tree.