PLANT-LORE OF SHAKESPEARE 
65 
Crown imperial. 
Bold Oxlips, and 
The Crown Imperial. — Winter's Tale , iv. 4, 125. 
The Crown Imperial is a Fritillary (P'. imperialist. It is a 
native of Persia, Afghanistan, and Cashmere, but it was very 
early introduced into England 
from Constantinople, and at 
once became a favourite. Chap¬ 
man, in 1595, spoke of it as— 
“ Fair Crown Imperial, Emperor of 
Flowers.” 
Ovid's Banquet of Sense. 
Gerard had it plentifully in 
his garden, and Parkinson gave 
it the foremost place in his 
“Paradisus Terrestris.” “The 
Crown Imperial,” he says, “for 
its stately beautifulnesse de- 
serveth the first place in this 
our garden of delight, to be 
here entreated of before all other Lillies.” George Herbert 
evidently admired it much— 
“ Then went I to a garden, and did spy 
A gallant flower, 
The Crown Imperial.”— Peace , 13. 
And if not in Shakespeare’s time, yet certainly very soon after, 
there were as many varieties as there are now. The plant, as 
a florist’s flower, has stood still in a very remarkable way. 
Though it is apparently a plant that invites the attention of the 
hybridizing gardener, yet we still have but the two colours, the 
red and the yellow (a pure white would be a great acquisition), 
with single and double flowers, flowers in tiers, and with varie¬ 
gated leaves. And all these varieties have existed for more 
than two hundred years. 
F 
