68 
SHAKESPEARE’S GARDEN 
though long cultivation makes the garden form and 
the wild hardly recognisable as close allies. It is, 
like many other plants of ours, of wide geographical 
range, extending to Northern Africa and North and 
Western India. The dense white-flowered umbels 
give place to seed petioles curved inwards, these 
suggesting the popular name of ' c bird’s nest.” As a 
garden plant it is said to have been introduced by 
Flemish gardeners, and its name was extended to 
cover the parsnip, Pastinaca sativa , L., which by the 
earlier herbalists and gardeners was known as the 
yellow carrot. The vegetable is only referred to 
once, in Merry Wives , IV. i. 55 : 
Remember, William ; focative is caret. 
And that’s a good root. 
The seeds of both carrot and parsnip have 
been found in the Swiss lake-dwellings (Keller, 
p. 381). 
Mustard is another native plant, or, rather, group of 
plants, closely allied to the turnip and cabbage. The 
two species used for commerce are the Brassica nigra, 
Koch, and the B. alba, Boiss. The former is truly 
wild on sea-cliff’s, the latter in cultivated ground, and 
both have the usual Europe-Asia distribution. 
Shakespeare gives Mustardseed as the name for 
one of Titania’s fairies ( Midsummer-Night ’ s Bream, 
III. i. 165), 
Peas-blossom ! Cobweb ! Moth ! and Mustard-seed ! 
and Bottom assigns that fairy the delightful occupa¬ 
tion of assisting Cobweb to scratch. The condiment 
itself is referred to in the conversation between 
Grumio and Katherine, Taming of the Shrew, IV. iii. 23: 
Gru. What say you to a piece of beef and mustard ? 
Kath. A dish that I do love to feed upon. 
Gru. Ay, but the mustard is too hot a little. 
Kath. Why then, the beef, and let the mustard rest. 
