New-York tribune., 1905-08-06

causes the Introduction IN the garden Of rose
mary There's rosemary, that's for r-mern-
brance; pray, love, remember; of the pansy,
And there is pansies that's for thoughts as
well as of fennel, rue and columbines- Visitors
to the garden always especially enjoy lingering
over these blossoms, which they have come to
associate with Ellen Terry Julia Marlowe. Ce-
ella LOTUS, or whoever may be their favorits
Opheia.
Further along the grassy borders, away from
the greenhouses, one comes on the spicy trio OF
mint balm and savOry. all of which are at
tractive plants. The gardener will tell you ar
this point that savory is not named from tts
qualities of taste or SAVIOR, but is corruption
of the old italian name-savoreggia- It like thu
marjoram, is mentioned in the lines
Here's flowers for you,
Hot lavender, mint. savory, mar1oraln
Growing things appealed to Shakespeare
people in other than esthetic ways. however.
consequently, We find in this garden many
plants associated with the table, such as bar
lev various kinds of beans, and the hramble.
with it's seedladen berries-the latter referred
TO bv FaIstaff when he rants Give you rea-
| son on compulson! If reasons were as plenthui
| as blackberries I would give no man reason
on compulsion." Near at hand are also the tart
rhubarb mentioned by the great poet as pur-
gative drug dn Elizabethan times it had prooa-
| bIy no culinary use), the dock, spoken OF by
Burgundy in Henry W. and the hardy leek
and fearful onion. That the food qualities OF
! this last vegetable were appreciated by Shake
speare is shown in Midsummer Nights Dream
where Bottom warns his fellow players, And
most dear actors, eat no onion nor garhc' 1or
we are to utter sweet breaths."
The brilliant lowered flax whose seed was
employed to poutice sixteenth no less than
twentieth century sore backs, likewise has
place in the garden along with the climbing
vetches and those other grains mentioned in
The Tempest" where Iris says to Ceres;
Most 6oqntSou7 55qy q9y THY 5eh ds 5sas and peas
M5o$ watsry @sh and sGnseT ser am sa2ds,sn rr.c.
Here on this grass plot, in this very place
| To come and sport
| In the shade of the trees at the edge of the
garden grow the cold lettuce" and the hyssoP
famous by reason of lagos much quoted meta
| phor of the human body and the garden: "Our
bodies are our gardens, to the which wills are
gardeners; so that if we will plant nettes or
SOW lettuce. set hyssop and weed up thyme, sup
ply it with one gender of herbs or distract it
with many either to have it sterile with idle
ness or rnanured with industry; why the power
and corrigibIe authority of this lies in our
wills"
The prosaic American potato grows near by
/ Almost the first mention of potatoes in liter
! ature comes 1t is interesting TO know. in The
Merry Wives of Windsor when Falstan says,
Let the sky rain potatoes, let it thunder to the
tune of green sleeves"
| In all Shakespeare mentioned in his plays
and poems no less than two hundred species Of
plants OF these the majority are to be found
in the Harvard garden which bears the poets
name Apart from its intrinsic interest the col
lection is therefore of value for its suggestive
ness 10 lovers of literature who are also lovers
of growing things-as the great playwright him
self appears to have been