ery common, being chiefly confined
to the South of England. I have found it on Maidenhead Thicket. As a
garden plant it is desirable for the extremely delicate scent of its
leaves, but the flower is not equal to others of the family. There is,
however, a double-flowered variety, which is handsome. The fruit of the
single flowered tree is large, and of a deep red colour, and is said to
be sometimes made into a preserve. In modern times this is seldom done,
but it may have been common in Shakespeare's time, for Gerard says
quaintly: "The fruit when it is ripe maketh most pleasant meats and
banqueting dishes, as tarts and such like, the making whereof I commit
to the cunning cooke, and teeth to eat them in the rich man's mouth."
And Drayton says--

"They'll fetch you conserve from the hip,
And lay it softly on your lip."

_Nymphal II._

Eglantine has a further interest in being one of the many thorny trees
from which the sacred crown of thorns was supposed to be made--"And
afterwards he was led into a garden of Cayphas, and there he was crowned
with Eglantine" (Sir John Mandeville).

FOOTNOTES:

[84:1] "Est et cynosrodos, rosa camina, ung eglantier, folia myrti
habens, sed paulo majora; recta assurgens in mediam altitudinem inter
arborem et fruticem; fert spongiolas, quibus utuntur medici, ad malefica
capitis ulcera, la malle tigne, vocatur antem vulgo in officinis
pharmacopolarum, bedegar."--_Stephani de re Hortensi Libellus_, p. 17,
1536.

ELDER.

(1) _Arviragus._

And let the stinking Elder, grief, untwine
His perishing root with the increasing Vine!

_Cymbeline_, act iv, sc. 2 (59).

(2) _Host._

What says my AEsculapius? my Galen? my heart of Elder?

_Merry Wives_, act ii, sc. 3 (29).

(3) _Saturninus._

Look for thy reward
Among the Nettles at the Elder tree,

* * * * *

This is the pit and this the Elder tree.

_Titus Andronicus_, act ii, sc. 3 (271).

(4) _Williams._

That's a perilous shot out of an Elder gun, that a poor and
private displeasure can do against a monarch.

_Henry V_, act iv, sc. 1 (200).

(5) _Holofernes._

Begin, sir, you are my Elder.

_Biron._