< Page:Essays of Francis Bacon 1908 Scott.djvu
This page has been validated.

214

BACON'S ESSAYS

[1]fruit; ribes;[2] figs in fruit; rasps;[3] vine-flowers; lavender in flowers; the sweet satyrian,[4] with the white flowers; herba muscaria;[5] lilium convallium;[6] the apple-tree in blossom. In July come gilliflowers of all varieties; musk-roses; the lime-tree in blossom; early pears and plums in fruit; genitings,[7] quadlins.[8] In August come plums of all sorts in fruit; pears; apricocks;[9]

  1. ↑ 'African flower' in Bacon's time, and the modern punctuation is at fault. Shakspere's "marigold that goes to bed wi' th' sun" was a different flower, Calendula Officinalis, one of the Compositae. It is a common flower in country gardens, of a deep yellow color; the name, Calendula, means 'little calendar,' or 'little weather-glass,' referring to its opening with the sun and shutting with the dew.
  2. ↑ Ribes. Currants.
  3. ↑ Rasps. Raspberries.
  4. ↑ Satyrian. Satyreia Hortensis, or Summer Savory, a low and homely sweet herb, with pale or purplish flowers. Like lavender, sweet marjoram, and other aromatic herbs, it is used in English gardens in mass to fill a border. The border in an English garden needs to be filled, because it is not the mere edge of a flower-bed; it is a strip of ground, often several feet wide, forming a fringe to the general area within laid out in flower-plots, or otherwise, and separated from it by a path.
  5. ↑ Herba muscaria. Muscari Botryoides, the Grape-Hyacinth, or Globe-Hyacinth, of the Lily family, a common little garden flower of early spring, with a dense raceme of dark blue flowers, like a minute cluster of grapes. It is now naturalized in the United States.
  6. ↑ Lilium convallium. The convall lily, convally; lily of the valley.
  7. ↑ Jenneting. Genitings. Apparently from the French Jean or Jeannet, in pomme de Saint-Jean, "S. John's apple, a kind of soone-ripe Sweeting." Cotgrave. A kind of early apple.

    "Yet, tho' I spared thee all the spring,
    Thy sole delight is, sitting still,
    With that cold dagger of thy bill,
    To fret the summer jenneting."

    Tennyson. The Blackbird. Stanza 3.

  8. ↑ Quadlin, or Codling, codlin. The codling is a variety of apple in shape elongated and rather tapering towards the eye, having several sub-varieties, as Kentish codling, Keswick codling. "As a squash is before 't is a peascod, or a codling when 't is almost an apple." Shakspere. Twelfth Night. i. 5.
  9. ↑ Apricocks. The fruit of the apricot, Prunus Armeniaca, or Armenian Plum. It is roundish-oval in shape, orange-colored, and has a delicious flavor.

    'Feed him with apricocks and dewberries,
    With purple grapes, green figs, and mulberries."

    Shakspere. A Midsummer-Night's Dream. iii. 1.

This article is issued from Wikisource. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.