298 
PLANT-LORE OF SHAKESPEARE 
learn from Spenser and from Tusser that it was the custom to 
grow it just as it came from the woods. 
Spenser says—• 
“ One day as they all three together went 
Into the wood to gather Strawberries.”— F. Q., vi. 34. 
and Tusser—■ 
“ Wife, into thy garden, and set me a plot 
With Strawbery rootes of the best to be got: 
Such growing abroade, among Thornes in the wood, 
Wei chosen and picked, prove excellent good. 
* 
• • • • 9 • 
The Gooseberry, Respis, and Roses al three 
With Strawberies under them trimly agree.” 
September's Husbandry. 
And even in the next century, Sir Hugh Plat said— 
“ Strawberries which grow in woods prosper best in gardens.” 
Garden of Eden, i. 20. 1 
Besides the wild one (Fragaria vesca ), they had the Vir¬ 
ginian (F Virginiana ), a native of North America, and the 
parent of our scarlets; but they do not seem to have had the 
Hautbois (F elatior ), or the Chilian, or the Carolinas, from 
which most of our good varieties have descended. 
The Strawberry is among fruits what the Primrose and 
Snowdrop are among flowers, the harbinger of other good fruits 
to follow. It is the earliest of the summer fruits, and there is 
no need to dwell on its delicate, sweet-scented freshness, so 
acceptable to all; but it has also a charm in autumn, known, 
however, but to few, and sometimes said to be only discernible 
by few. Among “ the flowers that yield sweetest smell in the 
air,” Bacon reckoned Violets, and “next to that is the Musk 
Rose, then the Strawberry leaves dying, with a most excellent 
1 It seems probable that the Romans only knew of the Wild Strawberry, 
of which both Virgil and Ovid speak—■ 
“ Qui legitis flores et humi nascentia fraga.”— Eel., ii. 
s< Contentique cibis nullo cogente creatis 
Arbuteos foetus m.ontanaque fraga legebant,”— Met am.., i. 105. 
