SHAKESPEARE’S GARDEN 
105 
The name “clover” is the Anglo-Saxon “ claefer ”— 
i.e.j the claver of herbals, from clava, a club,, and the 
origin of our “clubs” in a pack of cards (French 
trefle). The name is loosely applied to a number of 
plants of the pea order, which we can hardly find space 
to describe, but they include the true clovers, such as 
the splendid crimson clover (Trifolium incarnatus ), 
the Dutch clover (T. repens, L.), which is generally 
considered the true shamrock of St. Patrick, the 
national badge of Ireland, and also as the source of 
all heraldic trefoils, whether used in France or Ger¬ 
many—where the curious nenuphar, a stalkless tre¬ 
foil, is found—and has been considered the bouterolle 
of a sword, a heart, or the horns of a beetle, as the 
fancy or ignorance of the writer dictated. Besides 
the true clovers, the name is also given to melilot as 
“ hart’s-clover,” to medic as “ heart-clover,” and some 
others. 
The principal vegetable this month is a plant of 
the nightshade order ( Solanum tuberosum, L.). The 
English name, according to Prior (p. 181), belongs 
to the sweet potato, a plant of the order Convol- 
vulaceae, called by the Spaniards batatas . 
The two passages in Shakespeare are among the 
earliest mention of the tuber after its introduc¬ 
tion. The plant is said to have been brought to 
Ireland in 1584 by Sir Walter Raleigh. Gerard 
grew them as curiosities in 1597, and ends by saying 
they are eaten “ either rosted in the embers, or 
boiled and eaten with vinegar and pepper, or dressed 
in any other way by the hand of some cunning in 
cookerie ” (“ Herbal,” p. 782). 
It ought to be remembered that the plant is 
extremely poisonous uncooked, and the green berries 
borne in the autumn have been fatal more than once. 
It is a plant of so poisonous an order that it is 
reported Linnaeus refused to eat it.. 
