MAY 91 



responsible, and which it is surprising that so erudite a 

 botanist should not have detected. 



In the volume aforesaid Canon Ellacombe quotes 

 under the head of 'Eringoes' Falstaffs petition on 

 meeting Mrs. Ford and Mrs. Page in Windsor Park : 



'Let the sky rain potatoes; let it thunder to the tune of 

 Green Sleeves, hail kissing-comfits and snow eringoes.' 



Merry Wives t Act v. Sc. 5. 



After noting that Gerard explains ' eringoes ' as the 

 candied roots of the sea-holly (Eryngium maritimum) 

 the learned Canon proceeds : 



' I am inclined to think that the vegetable Falstaif wished 

 for was the globe artichoke, which is a near relative of the 

 eryngium, was a favourite diet in Shakespeare's time, and 

 was reputed to have special virtues which are not attributed 

 to the sea-holly, but which would more accord with Falstaff's 

 character.' 



Now in this paragraph there is not only a slip in 

 botany, for the globe artichoke (Cynara scolymus) and 

 the sea-holly are far from being nearly akin, the first 

 belonging to the Compositce or Daisy Order and the 

 second to the Umbelliferce or Hemlock Order ; but the 

 author misses the point of Falstaff's wish for ' eringoes ' 

 as incentive to amativeness. Whether Shakespeare 

 in writing of potatoes had in view the tubers of 

 Convolvulus batatas, which had been known as escu- 

 lent in Europe and called Spanish potatoes long before 

 The Merry Wives of Windsor was published in 1598, or 

 what we now know as potatoes tubers of Solanum 

 tuberosum which are supposed to have been first 

 grown in Ireland by Sir Walter Raleigh in 1584, both 



