H 
PLANT-LORE OF SHAKESPEARE 
better fruit, for Gerard tells us that in his time “ the stocke or 
kindred of Apples was infinite,” but because they were con¬ 
sidered pleasant food. 1 Another curious use of Crabs is told 
in the description of Crab-wake, or “ Crabbing the Parson,” at 
Halesowen, Salop, on St. Kenelm’s Day (July 17), in Brand’s 
“Popular Antiquities ” (vol. i. p. 342, Bohn’s edition). Nor may 
we now despise the Crab tree, though we do not eat its fruit. 
Among our native trees there is none more beautiful than the 
Crab tree, both in flower and in fruit. An old Crab tree in 
full flower is a sight that will delight any artist, nor is it alto¬ 
gether useless; its wood is very hard and very lasting, and 
from its fruit verjuice is made; not, however, much in Eng¬ 
land, as I believe nearly all the verjuice now used is made in 
France. 
The Pippin, from being originally a general name for any 
Apple raised from pips and not from grafts, is now, and pro¬ 
bably was in Shakespeare’s time, confined to the bright-coloured, 
long-keeping Apples (Justice Shallow’s was “last year’s Pippin”), 
of which the Golden Pippin (“ the Pippin burnished o’er with 
gold,” Phillips) is the type. 
The Bitter-Sweeting (22) was an old and apparently a favourite 
Apple. It is frequently mentioned in the old writers, as by 
Cower, “ Conf. Aman.” viii. 174— 
“For all such time of love is lore. 
And like unto the Bitter-swete, 2 
For though it think a man fyrst swete 
He shall well felen at laste 
That it is sower.” 
By Chaucer— 
“Yet of that art they conne nought wexe sadde. 
For unto hem it is a Bitter Swete.” 
Prologue of the Chanoune’s Yemeni . 
1 “As for Wildings and Crabs . . . their tast is well enough liked, and 
they carrie with them a quicke and a sharp smell; howbeit this gift they 
have for their harsh sourness, that they have many a foule word and shrewd 
curse given them.”— Philemon Holland’s Pliny , book xv. c. 14. 
“Amor et melle et felle est fecundissimus.”— Plautus. 
