IIO 
PLANT-LORE OF SHAKESPEARE 
proves that the “Gorst” was different from the “Vrise,” and it 
may very likely have been the Petty Whin. “ Pricking Goss,” 
however, may be only a generic term, like Bramble and Brier, 
for any wild prickly plant. 
©ourt>. 
For Gourd and fullam holds .—Merry Wives , i. 3, 94. 
I merely mention this to point out that “ Gourd,” though 
probably originally derived from the fruit, is not the fruit here, 
but is an instrument of gambling. The fruit, however, was 
well known in Shakespeare’s time, and was used as the type of 
intense greenness— 
“ Whose ccerule stream, rombling in pebble-stone, 
Crept under Moss, as green as any Gourd.” 
Spenser’s Virgil's Gnat. 
©race, see iRue. 
©rapes, see Dines. 
©rasses. 
(1) How lush and lusty the Grass looks ! how green !— Tempest, ii. 1, 52. 
(2) Here, on this Grass-plot, in this very place 
To come and sport.— Ibid., iv. 1, 73. 
(3) Why hath thy Queen 
Summoned me hither to this short-grassed green ?— Ibid., 82. 
(4) When Phoebe doth behold 
Her silver visage in the watery glass, 
Decking with liquid pearl the bladed Grass. 
Midsummer Night's Dream, i. 1, 209. 
