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PLANT-LORE OF SHAKESPEARE 
( 7 ) 
What is it you took up so Gingerly ? 
Two Gentlemen of Verona , i. 2, 7 °- 
(8) An I had but one penny in the world, thou shouldst have it to buy 
Ginger-bread.— Love's Labour's Lost, v. 1, 74. 
( 9 ) 
Swear me, Kate, like a lady as thou art, 
A good mouth-filling oath, and leave “ in sooth,” 
And such process of pepper Ginger-bread 
To velvet-guards and Sunday-citizens. 
1 st Henry LV, iii. 1, 258. 
Ginger was well known both to the Greeks and Romans. It 
was imported from Arabia, together with its name Zingiberri, 
which it has retained, with little variation, in all languages. 
When it was first imported into England is not known, but 
probably by the Romans, for it occurs as a common ingredient 
in many of the Anglo-Saxon medical recipes. Russell, in the 
“ Boke of Nurture,” mentions several kinds of Ginger; as green 
and white, “ colombyne, valadyne, and Maydelyn.” In Shake¬ 
speare’s time it was evidently very common and cheap. 
It is produced from the roots of Zingiber officinale, a member 
of the large and handsome family of the Gingerworts. The 
family contains some of the most beautiful of our greenhouse 
plants, as the Hedychiums, Alpinias, and Mantisias; and, 
though entirely tropical, most of the species are of easy culti¬ 
vation in England. Ginger is very easily reared in hotbeds, 
and I should think it very probable that it may have been so 
grown in Shakespeare’s time. Gerard attempted to grow it, 
but he naturally failed, by trying to grow it in the open ground 
as a hardy plant: yet “ it sprouted and budded forth greene 
leaves in my garden in the heate of somer; ” and he tells us 
that plants were sent him by “ an honest and expert apothe- 
carie, William Dries, of Antwerp,” and “ that the same had 
budded and grown in the said Dries’ Garden.” 
