In the inquiry into Shakespeare's plants I have entered somewhat largely into the etymological history of the names. I have been tempted into this by the personal interest I feel in the history of plant names, and I hope it may not have been uninteresting to my readers; but I do not think this part of the subject could have been passed by, for I agree with Johnston: "That there is more interest and as much utility in settling the nomenclature of our pastoral bards as that of all herbalists and dry-as-dust botanists" ("Botany of the Eastern Border"). I have also at times entered into the botany and physiology of the plants; this may have seemed needless to some, but I have thought that such notices were often necessary to the right understanding of the plants named, and again I shelter myself under the authority of a favourite old author: "Consider (gentle readers) what shiftes he shall be put unto, and how rawe he must needs be in explanation of metaphors, resemblances, and comparisons, that is ignorant of the nature of herbs and plants from whence their similitudes be taken, for the inlightening and garnishing of sentences."--NEWTON'S _Herball for the Bible_. I have said that my subject naturally divides itself into two parts, first, The Plants and Flowers named by Shakespeare; second, His Knowledge of Gardens and Gardening. The first part is now concluded, and I go to the second part, which will be very much shorter, and which may be entitled "The Garden-craft of Shakespeare." FOOTNOTES: [327:1] The reading of the folio is "young tree," for "Yew tree." [328:1] "An Eu tre (Ewetre); taxus, taximus."--_Catholicon Anglicum._ [328:2] "The eugh obedient to the bender's will."--SPENSER, _F. Q._, i. 9. "So far as eughen bow a shaft may send."--_F. Q._, ii. 11-19. [328:3] There are, however, well-recorded instances of death from Yew berries. The poisonous quality, such as it is, resides in the hard seed, and not in the red mucilaginous skin, which is the part eaten by children. (_See_ HEBENON.) [329:1] "For eucheson we have non Olyfe that bereth grene leves we takon in stede of hit Hew and Palmes wyth, and beroth abowte in procession and so this day we callyn palme sonnenday."--_Sermon for "Dominica in ramis palmarum," Cotton MSS._ PART II. _THE GARDEN-CRAFT OF SHAKESPEARE._ "The flowers are sweet, the colours fresh and trim." _Venus and Adonis._ "Retired Leisure That in trim Gardens takes his pleasure." MILTON, _Il Penseroso_. GARDEN-CRAFT.