ay was not a ring only, or an armlet: it was
also a coronet or diadem. . . . The Bays, then, of our Poets and the Bay
tree were in reality the Coronet and the Coronet tree."--COCKAYNE,
_Spoon and Sparrow_, p. 21.

[32:2] The Californian Bay has not been established in England long
enough to form a timber tree, but in America it is highly prized as one
of the very best trees for cabinet work, especially for the ornamental
parts of pianos.

[33:1] For an interesting account of the Bay and the Laurels, giving the
history of the names, &c., see two papers by Mr. H. Evershed in
"Gardener's Chronicle," September, 1876.

BEANS.

(1) _Puck._

When I a fat and Bean-fed horse beguile.

_Midsummer Night's Dream_, act ii, sc. 1 (45).

(2) _Carrier._

Peas and Beans are as dank here as a dog; and that is the next
way to give poor jades the bots.

_1st Henry IV_, act ii, sc. 1 (9).

The Bean (_Faba vulgaris_), though an Eastern plant, was very early
introduced into England as an article of food both for men and horses.
As an article of human food opinions were divided, as now. By some it
was highly esteemed--

"Corpus alit Faba; stringit cum cortice ventrem,
Desiccat fleuma, stomacum lumenque relidit"--

is the description of the Bean in the "Modus Cenandi," l. 182 ("Babee's
Book," ii, 48). While H. Vaughan describes it as--

"The Bean
By curious pallats never sought;"

and it was very generally used as a proverb of contempt--

"None other lif, sayd he, is worth a Bene."[34:1]

"But natheles I reche not a Bene."[34:2]

It is not apparently a romantic plant, and yet there is no plant round
which so much curious folk lore has gathered. This may be seen at full
length in Phillips' "History of Cultivated Vegetables." It will be
enough here to say that the Bean was considered as a sacred plant both
by the Greeks and Romans, while by the Egyptian priests it was
considered too unclean to be even looked upon; that it was used both for
its convenient shape and for its sacred associations in all elections by
ballot; that this custom lasted in England and in most Europeans
countries to a very recent date in the election of the kings and queens
at Twelfth Night and other feasts; and that it was of great repute in
all popular divinations and love charms. I find in Miller another use of