SHAKESPEARE’S GARDEN 
4i 
beautiful comparison of flowers with Imogen ( Cym - 
beline, IV. ii. 222) : 
No, nor 
The leaf of eglantine, whom, not to slander, 
Out-sweetened not thy breath ; 
but chiefly in the beautiful “ wild thyme bank ” song 
in Midsummer - Night’s Dream, II. i. 249, where 
ramped its scented shoot, a bower for the fair spot. 
The foreign rose, native of North Africa ( R . mos- 
chata, L.), is exclusively given over to Titania and her 
fairies. Here we learn, contrary to truth, it climbs 
upon her wild thyme bank with eglantine and honey¬ 
suckle : 
Quite overcanopied with luscious woodbine, 
With sweet musk-roses and with eglantine. 
It is again referred to in the next scene, where the 
fairies are sent (Midsummer-Night’s Dream, II. iii. 3) : 
Some to kill cankers in the musk-rose buds. 
The lily is most usually joined with the rose, com¬ 
panions in beauty, grace, and song, and they are 
none the less paired in Shakespeare. From the 
earliest times the lily has been the symbol of purity 
and holiness, fit image of our Lady’s mind and 
virtues. Many a beautiful denizen of foreign lands 
has graced our gardens in the last century, many of 
the fairest in colour and form, but none that can com¬ 
pare in purity and grace with Liliam candidum, L., 
the Annunciation lily of the painters. It came to us 
originally from its native wilds in Turkey and Greece, 
but long before the time of Shakespeare it adorned 
the monastic garden and castle terrace of our English 
homes. Other species, too, were no doubt known to 
the poet; and Gerard grew the showy orange lily, 
so bright an ornament in cottage gardens, the Lilium 
croceum, L., of botanists, native of the valleys of the 
