Part 56 (1/2)

_The Flower and the Leaf_ (240).

And certainly a fine Medlar tree ”ful of blossomes” is a handsome ornament on any lawn. There are few deciduous trees that make better lawn trees. There is nothing stiff about the growth even from its early youth; it forms a low, irregular, picturesque tree, excellent for shade, with very handsome white flowers, followed by the curious fruit; it will not, however, do well in the North of England or Scotland.

It does not seem to have been a favourite fruit with our forefathers.

Bullein says ”the fruite called the Medler is used for a medicine and not for meate;” and Shakespeare only used the common language of his time when he described the Medlar as only fit to be eaten when rotten.

Chaucer said just the same--

”That ilke fruyt is ever lenger the wers Till it be rote in mullok or in stree-- We olde men, I drede, so fare we, Till we be roten, can we not be rype.”

_The Reeves Tale._

And many others writers to the same effect. But, in fact, the Medlar when fit to be eaten is no more rotten than a ripe Peach, Pear, or Strawberry, or any other fruit which we do not eat till it has reached a certain stage of softness. There is a vast difference between a ripe and a rotten Medlar, though it would puzzle many of us to say when a fruit (not a Medlar only) is ripe, that is, fit to be eaten. These things are matters of taste and fas.h.i.+on, and it is rather surprising to find that we are accused, and by good judges, of eating Peaches when rotten rather than ripe. ”The j.a.panese always eat their Peaches in an unripe state. In the 'Gartenflora' Dr. Regel says, in some remarks on j.a.panese fruit trees, that the j.a.panese regard a ripe Peach as rotten.”

There are a few varieties of the Medlar, differing in the size and flavour of the fruits, which were also cultivated in Shakespeare's time.

FOOTNOTES:

[160:1] So Chester speaks of it as ”the Young Man's Medlar” (”Love's Martyr,” p. 96, New Sh. Soc.).

MINTS.

(1) _Perdita._

Here's flowers for you; Hot Lavender, Mints, Savory, Marjoram.

_Winter's Tale_, act iv, sc. 4 (103).

(2) _Armado._

I am that flower,

_Dumain._

That Mint.

_Longaville._

That Columbine.

_Love's Labour's Lost_, act v, sc. 2 (661).

The Mints are a large family of highly-perfumed, strong-flavoured plants, of which there are many British species, but too well known to call for any further description.