Page:Essays of Francis Bacon 1908 Scott.djvu/324

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214
BACON'S ESSAYS

fruit; ribes;[1] figs in fruit; rasps;[2] vine-flowers; lavender in flowers; the sweet satyrian,[3] with the white flowers; herba muscaria;[4] lilium convallium;[5] 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,[6] quadlins.[7] In August come plums of all sorts in fruit; pears; apricocks;[8]

    '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.

  1. Ribes. Currants.
  2. Rasps. Raspberries.
  3. 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.
  4. 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.
  5. Lilium convallium. The convall lily, convally; lily of the valley.
  6. 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.

  7. 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.
  8. 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.