96 
PLANT-LORE OF SHAKESPEARE 
The Fig tree, celebrated from the earliest times for the 
beauty of its foliage and for its “ sweetness and good fruit ” 
(Judges ix. n), is said to have been introduced into England 
by the Romans ; but the more reliable accounts attribute its 
introduction to Cardinal Pole, who is said to have planted the 
Fig tree still living at Lambeth Palace. Botanically, the Fig is 
of especial interest. The Fig, as we eat it, is neither fruit nor 
flower, though partaking of both, being really the hollow, fleshy 
receptacle enclosing a multitude of flowers, which never see 
the light, yet come to full perfection and ripen their seed. The 
Fig stands alone in this peculiar arrangement of its flowers, but 
there are other plants of which we eat the unopened or un¬ 
developed flowers, as the Artichoke, the Cauliflower, the Caper, 
the Clove, and the Pine Apple. 
filberts. 
I’ll bring thee to clustering Filberds.— Tempest , ii. 2, 174. 
See Hazel. 
flags. 
This common body 
Like to a vagabond Flag upon the stream 
Goes to and back, lackeying the varying tide, 
To rot itself with motion .—Antony and Cleopatra , i. 4, 44. 
We now commonly call the Iris a Flag, and in Shakespeare’s 
time the Iris pseudoacorus was called the Water Flag, and so 
this passage might, perhaps, have been placed under Flower- 
de-luce. But I do not think that the Flower-de-luce proper 
was ever called a Flag at that time, whereas we know that 
many plants, especially the Reeds and Bulrushes, were called 
in a general way Flags. This is the case in the Bible, the 
