PLANT-LORE OF SHAKESPEARE 
23-t 
Bullace, and Blackthorn. Not only is it a shrub of very 
marked appearance in our hedgerows in early spring, when 
it is covered with its pure white blossoms, but Blackthorn 
staves were indispensable in the rough game of quarterstaff, 
and the Sloe gave point to more than one English proverb: 
“as black as a Sloe,” was a very common comparison, and 
“as useless as a Sloe,” or “not worth a Sloe,” was as common, 
“ Sir Amys answered, e Tho’ 
I give thee thereof not one Sloe ! 
Do right all that thou may ! 5 ” 
Amys and Amy lion — Ellis’s Romances . 
“ The offecial seyde, Thys ys nowth 
Be God, that me der bowthe, 
Het ys not worthe a Sclo.” 
The Frere and His Boy — Ritson’s Ancient Popular Poetry . 
Though even as a fruit the Sloe had its value, and was 
not altogether despised by our ancestors, for thus Tusser 
advises— 
“ By thend of October go gather up Sloes, 
Have thou in readines plentie of thoes, 
And keepe them in bed-straw, or still on the bow, 
To staie both the flix of thyselfe and thy cow.” 
As soon as the garden Plum was introduced, great attention 
seems to have been paid to it, and the gardeners of Shake¬ 
speare’s time could probably show as good Plums as we can 
now. “To write of Plums particularly,” said Gerard, “would 
require a peculiar volume. . . . Every clymate hath his owne 
fruite, far different from that of other countries; my selfe have 
threescore sorts in my garden, and all strange and rare ; there 
be in other places many more common, and yet yearly commeth 
to our hands others not before knowne.” 
