SHAKESPEARE’S GARDEN 
150 
great perfection, and was used for houses, boats, and, 
in the form of baskets, was even imported to Rome, 
and looked upon there as an article of rarity and 
beauty. These basket-work dwellings are referred 
to by the poet in Twelfth Night , I. v. 287 : 
Make me a willow cabin at yonr gate. 
But the willow was looked upon by the sixteenth- 
century poets as the plant of jilted love, and a spirit 
of sadness prevailed in connection with it, both 
in ancient and more modern times. Thus we get— 
In such a night 
Stood Dido with a willow in her hand 
Upon the wild sea banks. 
Merchant of Venice, V. i. 9; 
and— 
Tell him, in hope he’ll prove a widower shortly, 
I’ll wear the willow garland for his sake. 
3 Henry VI., III. iii. 227. 
Osiers are also spoken of thus : 
The rank of osiers by the murmuring stream. 
As You Like It, IV. iii. 80. 
When Cytherea, all in love forlorn, 
A longing tarriance for Adonis made 
Under an osier growing by a brook. 
Passionate Kinsman, vi. 
The most beautiful early flowering tree is un¬ 
doubtedly the almond, one of our showiest garden 
ornaments this month. It was early known in 
Britain and called the “ Eastime-nutte-beam/’ The 
tree is the Amygdalus communis, L., of botanists, and 
is said to have come from Barbary. It was cultivated 
in 1570, in England, and probably many centuries 
earlier. It is only once mentioned by the poet, and 
