OAK 



c.] NATURAL HISTORY. 217 



be closed in an hard skin, rind, or shell be called Nuts, 

 as pines, chestnuts and filberts, and other such. The 

 shadow of the Nut-tree grieveth them that sleep there- 

 under, and breedeth diverse sicknesses and evils, but the 

 fruit thereof dyeth and cleanseth hair, and letteth the 

 falling thereof. In great French Nuts [i.e., walnuts or 

 barnuts] generally the shape of the cross is printed therein. 



Bartholomew (Berthelet), bk. xvii. 108. 



V. Chestnut, Filbert, Walnut, etc. 

 Nutmeg. 



LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST, v. 2. 

 WINTER'S TALE, iv. 3, 20. 



THE more heavy the Nutmeg is in weight, and the more 

 sweet in smell and sharp in savour, the better it is. The 

 Nutmeg holden to the nose comforteth the brain and the 

 spiritual members. Bartholomew (Berthelet], bk. xvii. 109. 



THE Nutmeg is good against freckles of the face [and] 

 quickeneth the sight. There is not any so simple but 

 knoweth that the heaviest, fattest and fullest of juice are 

 the best, which may easily be determined by pricking the 

 same with a pin or such like. Gerard's "Herbal," s.v. 



As easily deciphered as the characters in a Nutmeg. 



Lilly, "Midas," iv. 3. 



Oak. 



THE Oak is a tree that beareth mast, and is a fast tree 

 and a sad, and dureth long time, with hard rind, and little 

 pith or none, and there breedeth on the leaves a manner 

 thing sour and unsavoury, and physicians call it gall. 



Bartholomew (Bertbelet], bk. xvii. 134. 



THE Oak is a tree with many boughs and branches, 

 and, by reason of many fair leaves and broad, it causeth 

 pleasant shadow, and beareth great plenty of fruit and of 

 mast. The tree is durable and strong,^ and nigh unable to 

 root ; for stocks thereof laid under water turneth, as it 

 were, into hardness of stone ; and the longer time they be 



