een 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 fashion, and it is rather surprising to find that
we are accused, and by good judges, of eating Peaches when rotten rather
than ripe. "The Japanese always eat their Peaches in an unripe state. In
the 'Gartenflora' Dr. Regel says, in some remarks on Japanese fruit
trees, that the Japanese 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.

MISTLETOE.

_Tamora._

The trees, though summer, yet forlorn and lean,
O'ercome with Moss and baleful Mistletoe.

_Titus Andronicus_, act ii, sc. 3 (94).

The Mistletoe was a sore puzzle to our ancestors, almost as great a
mystery as the Fern. While they admired its fresh, evergreen branches,
and pretty transparent fruit, and used it largely in the decoration of
their houses at Christmas, they looked on the plant with a certain awe.
Something of this, no doubt, arose from its traditional connection with
the Druids, which invested the plant with a semi-sacred character, as a
plant that could drive away evil spirits; yet it was also looked upon
with some suspicion, perhaps also arising from its use by our heathen
ancestors, so that, though admitted into houses, it was not (or very
seldom) admitted into churches. And this character so far still attaches
to the Mistletoe, that it is never allowed with the Holly and Ivy and
Box to decorate the churches, and Gay's lines were certainly written in
error--

"Now with bri