PLANT-LORE OF SHAKESPEARE 
305 
made the most pleasant and profitable sweet called Sugar, 
whereof is made infinite confections, sirupes, and such like, as 
also preserving and conserving of sundrie fruits, herbes and 
flowers, as roses, violets, rosemary flowers and such like.” 
Sweet Marjoram, see Marjoram, 
Sgcamore. 
(r) The poor soul sat sighing by a Sycamore tree. 
Othello , iv. 3, 41. 
(2) Underneath the grove of Sycamore 
That westward rooteth from the city’s side, 
So early walking did I see your son. 
Romeo and Juliet , i. 1, 130. 
(3) Under the cool shade of a Sycamore 
I thought to close mine eyes some half-an-hour. 
Love’s Labour s Lost , v. 2, 89. 
In its botanical relationship, the Sycamore is closely allied 
to the Maple, and was often called the Great Maple, and is 
still so called in Scotland. It is not indigenous in Great Britain, 
but it has long been naturalized among us, and has taken so 
kindly to our soil and climate that it is one of our commonest 
trees. It is one of the best of forest trees for resisting wind ; 
it “scorns to be biassed in its mode of growth even by the 
prevailing wind, but shooting its branches with equal boldness 
in every direction, shows no weatherside to the storm, and may 
be broken, but never can be bended .”—Old Mortality , c. i. 
The history of the name is curious. The Sycomore, or 
Zicamine tree of the Bible and of Theophrastus and Diosco- 
rides, is the Fig-mulberry, a large handsome tree indigenous 
in Africa and Syria, and largely planted, partly for the sake of 
its fruit, and especially for the delicious shade it gives. With 
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