306 
PLANT-LORE OF SHAKESPEARE 
this tree the early English writers were not acquainted, but 
they found the name in the Bible, and applied it to any shade¬ 
giving tree. Thus in FElfric’s Vocabulary in the tenth century 
it is given to the Aspen—“ Sicomorus vel celsa seps.” The 
author of The Flower and the Leaf gives the name to some 
hedge shrub, but he probably used it for any thick shrub, 
without any very special distinction— 
“ The hedge also that yedde in compas 
And closed in all the greene herbere 
With Sicamour was set and Eglateere, 
Wrethen in fere so well and cunningly 
That every branch and leafe grew by measure 
Plaine as a bord, of an height by and by.” 
Our Scyamore would be very ill suited to make the sides and 
roof of an arbour, but before the time of Shakespeare it seems 
certain that the name was attached to our present tree, and it 
is so called by Gerard and Parkinson. 
The Sycamore is chiefly planted for its rapid growth rather 
than for its beauty. It becomes a handsome tree when fully 
grown, but as a young tree it is stiff and heavy, and at all times 
it is so infested with honeydew as to make it unfit for planting 
on lawns or near paths. It grows well in the north, where 
other trees will not well flourish, and “we frequently meet with 
the tree apart in the fields, or unawares in remote localities 
amidst the Lammermuirs and the Cheviots, where it is the 
surviving witness of the former existence of a hamlet there.”— 
Johnston. But these old Sycamores were not planted only for 
beauty : they were sometimes planted for a very unpleasant 
use. “ They were used by the most powerful barons in the 
West of Scotland for hanging their enemies and refractory 
vassals on, and for this reason were called dool or grief trees. 
Of these there are three yet standing, the most memorable 
being one near the fine old castle of Cassilis, one of the seats 
of the Marquis of Ailsa, on the banks of the River Doon. It 
was used by the family of Kennedy, who were the most power¬ 
ful barons of the West of Scotland, for the purpose above 
mentioned.”—J ohns. 
