SYCAMORE. 223 



onely planted in orchards or walkes for the 

 shadowe's sake." 



Evelyn says, positively, that it is not indi- 

 genous to our soil. 



Chaucer, it is true, mentions the sycamore 

 as long back as the fourteenth century ; but 

 as it is described by him in a kind of poetical 

 dream, we conclude it was from the knowledge 

 he obtained of this tree when abroad ; but 

 even if it were known in England in his time, 

 it was evidently rare, as his verse insinuates ; 

 and as it may not be uninteresting to many of 

 our readers to have Chaucer's description of 

 an arbour, we give the following extract : 



" Till it me brought 



To a rich pleasaunt herber wel ywrought, 

 Which that benched was, and, with turfes new, 

 So small, so thick, so short, so fresh of hew, 

 That most like to grene woll, wot I, it was. 

 The hegge also — that yeden in compas, 

 And closed in alle the grene herber, 

 With sycamor was set, and eglatere, 

 Wrether in fere so well and cunningly, 

 That every braunch and lefe grew by mesure 

 Plain as a bord, of an height, by and by ; 

 I se neuer a thing (I you ensure) 

 So well ydone ; for he that toke the cure 

 It for to make, (I trowe), did all his peine 

 To make it pass, alltho that men have seine." 



St. Jerome, who died in the beginning of 

 the fourth century after Christ, tells us, that 

 he saw the sycamore tree which Zaccheus 



