e," which is a true English word
meaning the "fire-tree;" but I believe that "Fir" was originally
confined to the timber, from its large use for torches, and was not till
later years applied to the living tree.

The sweetness of the Pine seeds, joined to the difficulty of extracting
them, and the length of time necessary for their ripening, did not
escape the notice of the emblem-writers of the sixteenth and seventeenth
centuries. With them it was the favourite emblem of the happy results of
persevering labour. Camerarius, a contemporary of Shakespeare and a
great botanist, gives a pretty plate of a man holding a Fir-cone, with
this moral: "Sic ad virtutem et honestatem et laudabiles actiones non
nisi per labores ac varias difficultates perveniri potest, at postea
sequuntur suavissimi fructus." He acknowledges his obligation for this
moral to the proverb of Plautus: "Qui e nuce nucleum esse vult, frangat
nucem" ("Symbolorum," &c., 1590).

In Shakespeare's time a few of the European Conifers were grown in
England, including the Larch, but only as curiosities. The very large
number of species which now ornament our gardens and Pineta from America
and Japan were quite unknown. The many uses of the Pine--for its timber,
production of pitch, tar, resin, and turpentine--were well known and
valued. Shakespeare mentions both pitch and tar.

FOOTNOTES:

[208:1] For many examples see "Catholicon Anglicum," s.v. Pyne-Tree,
with note.

[208:2] The West Indian Pine Apple is described by Gerard as "Ananas,
the Pinea, or Pine Thistle."

PINKS.

(1) _Romeo._

A most courteous exposition.

_Mercutio._

Nay, I am the very Pink of courtesy.

_Romeo._

Pink for flower.

_Mercutio._

Right.

_Romeo._

Why, then is my pump well flowered.

_Romeo and Juliet_, act ii, sc. 4 (60).

(2) _Maiden._

Pinks of odour faint.

_Two Noble Kinsmen_, Introd. song.

To these may perhaps be added the following, from the second verse sung
by Mariana in "Measure for Measure," act iv, sc. 1 (337)--

Hide, oh hide, those hills of snow
Which thy frozen bosom bears!
On whose tops the Pinks that grow
Are of those that April wears.

The authority is doubtful, but it is attributed to Shakespeare in some
editions of his poems.

The Pink or Pincke was, as now, the name of the smalle