Transcriber's Notes:
Variations in spelling and hyphenation have been left as in theoriginal. Some typographical and punctuation errors have been corrected.A complete list follows the text. Greek words that may not displaycorrectly in all browsers are transliterated in the text using hoverslike this: βιβλος. Position your mouseover the line to see the transliteration. Underlined lettersindicate diacritical marks and special characters that may not bevisible in all browsers. Position your mouse over the line to see anexplanation.
[i]
[ii]
"It would be hard to name a better commonplace book for summerlawns. . . . The lover of poetry, the lover of gardening, and the loverof quaint, out-of-the-way knowledge will each find something to pleasehim. . . . It is a delightful example of gardening literature."—PallMall Gazette.
"Mr. Ellacombe, with a double enthusiasm for Shakespeare and forhis garden, has produced a very readable and graceful volume on thePlant-Lore of Shakespeare."—Saturday Review.
"Mr. Ellacombe brings to his task an enthusiastic love of horticulture,wedded to no inconsiderable practical and theoretical knowledgeof it; a mind cultivated by considerable acquaintance with theGreek and Latin classics, and trained for this special subject by a courseof extensive reading among the contemporaries of his author: and acapacity for patient and unwearied research, which he has shown bythe stores of learning he has drawn from a class of books rarely dippedinto by the student—Saxon and Early English herbals and books ofleechcraft; the result is a work which is entitled from its worth to aplace in every Shakesperian library."—Spectator.
"The work has fallen into the hands of one who knows not only theplants themselves, but also their literary history; and it may be saidthat Shakespeare's flowers now for the first time find an historian."—Field.
"A delightful book has been compiled, and it is as accurate as it isdelightful."—Gardener's Chronicle.
"Mr. Ellacombe's book well deserves a place on the shelves of boththe student of Shakespeare and the lover of plant lore."—Journal ofBotany.
"By patient industry, systematically bestowed, Mr. Ellacombe hasproduced a book of considerable interest; . . . full of facts, groupedon principles of common sense about quotations from our great poet."—Guardian.
"Mr. Ellacombe is an old and faithful labourer in this field ofcriticism. His 'Plant-lore and Garden-craft of Shakespeare' . . .is the fullest and best book on the subject."—The Literary World(American).
[iii]
BY
OF ORIEL COLLEGE, OXFORD,
VICAR OF BITTON, GLOUCESTERSHIRE, AND HON. CANON OF BRISTOL.
...