PLANT-LORE OF SHAKESPEARE 
2 57 
men recommending it as one of the most cooling and whole¬ 
some tarts sent to table. 33 
As a garden plant the Rhubarb is highly ornamental, though 
it is seldom seen out of the kitchen-garden, but where room 
can be given to them. Rheum palmatum , or Rheum officinale , 
will always be admired as some of the handsomest of foliage 
plants. The finest species of the family is the Himalayan 
Rheum nobile , but it is exceedingly difficult to grow. Botanic- 
ally the Rhubarb is allied to the Dock and Sorrel, and all the 
species are herbaceous. 
IRice. 
Let me see ; what am I to buy for our sheep-shearing feast ? Three pound 
of sugar, five pound of Currants, Rice--What will this sister of mine 
do with Rice ? 1 —Winter s Tale, iv. 3, 38. 
Shakespeare may have had no more acquaintance with Rice 
than his knowledge of the imported grain, which seems to 
have been long ago introduced info England, for in a Nominale 
of the fifteenth century we have “ Hoc risi, indeclinabile, Ryse.” 
And in the “ Promptorium Parvulorum,” “ Ryce, frute. Risia, 
vel risi, n. indecl. secundum quosdam, vel risium, vel risorum 
granum (rizi vel granum Indicum). 33 Turner was acquainted 
with it: “ Ryse groweth plentuously in watery myddowes 
between Myllane and Pavia. 33 2 And Shakespeare may have 
seen the plant, for Gerard grew it in his London garden, 
though “ the floure did not show itselfe by reason of the injurie 
of our unseasonable yeare 1596. 33 It is a native of Africa, and 
was soon transferred to Europe as a nourishing and wholesome 
grain, especially for invalids—“ sume hoc ptisanarium oryzse, 33 
says the doctor to his patient in Horace, and it is mentioned 
both by Dioscorides and Theophrastus. It has been occasion- 
1 In 1468 the price of rice was 3 d. a pound = 3*. of our money (“Babees 
Book,” xxx). 
8 “Names of Herbes,” s.v. Oryza. 
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