WILLOW.] NATURAL HISTORY. 343 



easily broken. Grains of Wheat chewed helpeth against the 

 biting of a wode hound, for it draweth out the venom. 

 Also bran of Wheat nourisheth little or else right nought. 



Bartholomew (Bertkelet), bk. xvii. 168. 



Whelp. 



i. KING HENRY VI., iv. 7, 35. 



WHELPS be the children of hounds. Hounds' Whelps 

 be whelped with sawing teeth though they be full small. 

 And all beasts that have teeth like a saw and departed be 

 gluttons and fight, as the hound, the wolf, the lion, the 

 panther and such other ; and all such beasts gender imper- 

 fect broods, and the cause is gluttony, for if she should 

 abide until the Whelps were complete and perfect, they 

 should slay the mother with strong sucking, and therefore 

 it needeth that kind be hasty and speedful in such beasts. 

 And authors command to take sucking Whelps wholesomely 

 against venomous bitings, for such Whelps opened and laid 

 hot to the biting of serpents draw out venom. And though 

 they be melancholy beasts of quality and of complexion, 

 yet they be quiver and swift by disposition of numbers, and 

 be glad and merry, and play much, and that is because of 

 their age. Bartholomew (Berthelet], bk. xviii. 28. 



Wild-duck. 



i. KING HENRY IV., ii. 2, 103, iv. 2, 20. 



V. Duck. 

 Wild-Goose. 



i. KING HENRY IV., ii. 4, 152. 



V. Goose. 

 Willow. 



OTHELLO, iv. 3, 28, etc. 



WILLOW is a pliant tree and a nesh [soft], and according 

 to binding and railing of vines and vine-branches. This 

 tree hath no fruit but only seed or flower. And the seed 

 thereof is of this virtue, that if a man drink of it, he shall 

 get no sons, but only barren daughters. [Query, whether 



