16 FAMILIAR WILL FLOWERS. 



" And many homely trees there were 

 That peaches, coines, and apples bere, 

 Medlers, plummes, peers, chesteinis, 

 Cherise, of whiche many one faine is. ' 



Culpepper begins his description of ' ' plumbs " with such 

 gratuitous wantonness of discourtesy that we merely quote 

 his opening remark,, and then hand him over to the repro- 

 bation of our readers. He states that " all plumbs are 

 under Venus, and are, like women , some better and some 

 worse/' The English translation of Dodoens says of 

 " plummes" that "some apparteyne to the garden, and 

 some are of a wilde kinde. The garden or tame plummes 

 are of divers kindes, some white, some yellow, some blacke, 

 some of the colour of a chesnut, and some of a Ivght or 

 cleare redde, and some great and some smal, some sweet 

 and dry, some freshe and sharpe, whereof each kinde hath 

 a particular name. The wilde plummes are the least of 

 all, and are called Slose, Bullies, and Snagges." 



