SHAKESPEARE’S GARDEN 
91 
an absurd legend stating it to have been founded by 
King Achaius in 80,9. The real origin of the adop¬ 
tion of the badge is unknown, although the story of 
the Danish invader at the Battle of Largs "has been 
repeated ad nauseam. 
In the fruit-garden the trees are daintily set with 
peaches, and purple or golden with plums, and in the 
hedge banks blackberries are turning from their 
scarlet hue. 
The peach (Persica vulgaris , Mill.) is a native of 
China, but found its way into English gardens long 
before the days of the poet; in fact, it has a place 
under the name Perseoctreow in iElfric’s vocabulary, 
since which time it has passed through the forms 
“peske,” “peshe,” and “peche.” The apricot was 
considered, as we have seen, an early peach. Shake¬ 
speare alludes twice to peach colour, but never to 
the tree itself or its fruit (2 Henry IV., II. ii. 17, and 
Measure for Measure, IV. iii. 12). It is a handsome 
tree when grown among other shrubs for the sake of 
its flowers, whether single or double. 
The plum is a hardier, more generally useful and 
widely-grown fruit, mentioned also by the poet as 
damsons and as prunes. 
The plum-tree itself is spoken of in Hamlet, II. 
ii. 198 : 
Their eyes purging thick amber and plum-tree gum. 
And in 2 Henry VI., II. i. 9h, in a comic scene 
between Simpcox and his wife and the Duke of 
Gloucester : 
Simp. A fall off of a tree. 
Wife. A plum-tree, master. . . . 
Glouc. Mass, thou lovedst plums well, thatwouldst venture 
so. 
Simp. Alas, good master, my wife desired some damsons, 
And made me climb with danger of my life. 
