PLANT-LORE OF SHAKESPEARE 
34i 
his camp with British Wheat (“frumentum ex agris quotidie 
in castra conferebat ”); and it was while his soldiers were 
reaping the Wheat in the Kentish fields that they were sur¬ 
rounded and successfully attacked by the British. He tells 
us, however, that the cultivation of Wheat was chiefly confined 
to Kent, and was not much known inland : “ interiores plerique 
frumenta non serunt, sed lacte et carne vivunt .”—De Bello 
Gallico , v. 14. Roman Wheat has frequently been found in 
graves, and strange stories have been told of the plants that 
have been raised from these old seeds; but a more scientific 
inquiry has proved that there have been mistakes or deceits, 
more or less intentional, for “ Wheat is said to keep for seven 
years at the longest. The statements as to mummy Wheat 
are wholly devoid of authenticity, as are those of the Raspberry 
seeds taken from a Roman tomb.” —Hooker, “ Botany ” in 
Science Primers. The oft-repeated stories about the vitality of 
mummy Wheat were effectually disposed of when it was dis¬ 
covered that much of the so-called Wheat was South American 
Maize. 
Willow* 
(1) Make me a Willow cabin at your gate. 
Twelfth Night, i. 5, 287. 
(2) Benedick. Come, will you go with me? 
Claudio. Whither ? 
Benedick. Even to the next Willow, about your own business. 
Much Ado About Nothing, ii. 1, 192. 
(3) I offered him my company to a Willow tree, either to make him a 
garland, as being forsaken, or to bind him up a rod, as being 
worthy to be whipped.— Ibid., 223. 
(4) These thoughts to me were Oaks, to thee like Osiers bow’d. 
Love's Labour s Lost , iv. 2, 112. 
In such a night 
Stood Dido, with a Willow in her hand, 
Upon the wild sea-banks .—Merchant of Venice , v. i, 9. 
( 5 ) 
