PLANT-LORE OF SHAKESPEARE 
27 
the European Bay. 1 Parkinson’s high praise of the Bay tree 
(forty years after Shakespeare’s death) is too long for insertion, 
but two short sentences may be quoted : “ The Bay leaves are 
of as necessary use as any other in the garden or orchard, for 
they serve both for pleasure and profit, both for ornament and 
for use, both for honest civil uses and for physic, yea, both for 
the sick and for the sound, both for the living and for the 
dead; so that from the cradle to the grave we have still 
use of it, we have still need of it.” 
The Bay tree gives us a curious instance of the capricious¬ 
ness of English plant names. Though a true Laurel it does 
not bear the name, which yet is given to two trees, the common 
and Portugal Laurel, and the Laurestinus, neither of which 
are Laurels—the one being a Cherry or Plum (Primus or 
Cerasus), the other a Guelder Rose ( Viburnum). 2 
SSeans. 
(1) When I a fat and Bean-fed horse beguile. 
Midsummer Night's Dream, ii. 1, 45. 
(2) Peas and Beans are as dank here as a dog; and that is the next way to 
give poor jades the bots. — 1 st Henry IF, ii. 1, 9. 
The Bean (Faba vulgaris), Though an Eastern plant, was 
very early introduced into England as an article of food both 
for men and horses. As an article of human food opinions 
were divided, as now. By some it was highly esteemed— 
“Corpus alit Faba; stringit cum cortice ventrem, 
Desiccat fleuma, stomacum lumenque relidit ”— 
1 The Californian Bay has not been established in England long enough 
to form a timber tree, but in America it is highly prized as one of the very 
best trees for cabinet work, especially for the ornamental parts of pianos. 
2 For an interesting account of the Bay and the Laurels, giving the 
history of the names, See., see two papers by Mr. H. Evershed in 
“Gardener’s Chronicle,” September, 1876. 
