PLANT-LORE OF SHAKESPEARE 
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pathways, and literally bred by the wayside. It has a similar 
name in German, Wegetritt, that is, W ay tread; and on this 
account the Swedes name the plant Wagbredblad, and the 
Indians of North America Whiteman’s Foot, for it springs up 
near every new settlement, having sprung up after the English 
settlers, not only in America, but also in Australia and New 
Zealand—■ 
“ Wheresoe’er they move, before them 
Swarms the stinging fly, the Ahmo, 
Swarms the bee, the honey-maker : 
Wheresoe’er they tread, beneath them 
Springs a flower unknown among us, 
Springs the ‘White man’s foot’ in blossom.” 
Longfellow’s Hiawatha. 
And “ so it is a mistake to say that Plantain is derived from 
the likeness of the plant to the sole of the foot, as in Richard¬ 
son’s Dictionary. Rather say, because the herb grows under 
the sole of the foot.”— Johnston. How, or when, or why the 
plant lost its old English names to take the Latin name of 
Plantain, it is hard to say. It occurs in a vocabulary of the 
names of plants of the middle of the thirteenth century— 
“ Plantago, Planteine, Weibrode,” and apparently came to us 
from the French, “ Cy est assets de Planteyne, Weybrede.”— 
Walter de Biblesworth (13th cent.). But with the exception 
of Chaucer, 1 I believe Shakespeare is almost the only early 
writer that uses the name, though it is very certain that he did 
not invent it; but “ Plantage ” (No. 3), which is doubtless the 
same plant, is peculiar to him. 2 
It was as a medical herb that our forefathers chiefly valued 
the Plantain, and for medical purposes its reputation was of 
the very highest. In a book of recipes (Lacnunga) of the 
1 “ Plis forehead dropped as a stillatorie 
Were ful of Plantayn and peritorie.” 
Prologue of the Chanounes Yemaiu 
2 Nares, and Schmidt from him, consider Plantage = anything planted. 
