xii PREFACE 



bacco (but neither is mentioned by Shakespeare) 

 and from the West Indies came the 'Nasturtium In- 

 dicum "Yellow Lark's Heels," as the Elizabethans 

 called it. 



Many persons will be interested to learn the quaint 

 old flower names, such as "Sops-in-Wine," the 

 "Frantic Foolish Cowslip," "Jack-an-Apes on Horse- 

 back," "Love in Idleness," "Dian's Bud," etc. 



The Elizabethans enjoyed their gardens and used 

 them more than we use ours to-day. They went to 

 them for re-creation a renewing of body and re- 

 freshment of mind and spirit. They loved their 

 shady walks, their pleached alleys, their flower- 

 wreathed arbors, their banks of thyme, rosemary, 

 and woodbine, their intricate "knots" bordered with 

 box or thrift and filled with bright blossoms, and 

 their labyrinths, or mazes. Garden lovers were criti- 

 cal and careful about the arrangement and grouping 

 of their flowers. To-day we try for masses of color ; 

 but the Elizabethans went farther than we do, for 

 they blended their hues and even shaded colors from 

 dark to light. The people of Shakespeare's day were 

 also fastidious about perfume values something 

 we do not think about to-day. The planting of 

 flowers with regard to the "perfume on the air," as 

 Bacon describes it, was a part of ordinary garden 



