PLANT-LORE OF SHAKESPEARE 
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celsus gerens celsa;” and Mr. Wright translates “celsa” by 
“Mulberries,” without, however, giving his authority for this 
translation. 1 But whenever introduced, it had been long 
established in England in Shakespeare’s time. 
It must have been a common tree even in Anglo-Saxon 
times, for the favourite drink, Morat, was a compound of 
honey flavoured with Mulberries (Turner’s “Anglo-Saxons”). 2 
Spenser spoke of it— 
“ With love juice stained the Mulberie, 
The fruit that dewes the poet’s braine.”— Elegy , 18. 
Gerard describes it as “high and full of boughes,” and 
growing in sundry gardens in England, and he grew in his own 
London garden both the Black and the White Mulberry. 
Lyte also, before Gerard, describes it and says: “ It is called 
in the fayning of Poetes the wisest of all other trees, for this 
tree only among all others bringeth forth his leaves after the 
cold frostes be past; ” and the Mulberry Garden, often 
mentioned by the old dramatists, “occupied the site of the 
present Buckingham Palace and Gardens, and derived its name 
from a garden of Mulberry trees planted by King James I. in 
1609, in which year 935/. was expended by the king in the 
planting of Mulberry trees near the Palace of Westminster.” 3 
As an ornamental tree for any garden, the Mulberry needs 
no recommendation, being equally handsome in shape, in 
foliage, and in fruit. It is a much-prized ornament in all old 
gardens, so that it has been well said that an old Mulberry tree 
on the lawn is a patent of nobility to any garden; and it is 
most easy of cultivation; it will bear removal when of a 
considerable size, and so easily can it be propagated from 
cuttings, that a story is told of Mr. Payne Knight that he cut 
1 The authority may be in the “ Promptorium Parvulorum: ” “Mul¬ 
berry, Morum (selsus).” 
2 “Moratum potionis genus, f. ex vino et moris dilutis confectse.”— 
Glossarium Adelung. 
3 Cunningham’s “ Handbook of London,” p. 346, with many quotations 
from the old dramatists. There are no remains of these old Mulberries in 
Buckingham Palace Gardens. 
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