e tree has been introduced from Europe.

In England the Quince is probably less grown now than it was in
Shakespeare's time--yet it may well be grown as an ornamental shrub even
by those who do not appreciate its fruit. It forms a thick bush, with
large white flowers, followed in the autumn by its handsome fruit, and
requires no care. "They love shadowy, moist places;" "It delighteth to
grow on plaine and even ground and somewhat moist withall." This was
Lyte's and Gerard's experience, and I have never seen handsomer bushes
or finer fruit than I once saw on some neglected bushes that skirted a
horsepond on a farm in Kent; the trees were evidently revelling in their
state of moisture and neglect. The tree has a horticultural value as
giving an excellent stock for Pear-trees, on which it has a very
remarkable effect, for "Cabanis asserts that when certain Pears are
grafted on the Quince, their seeds yield more varieties than do the
seeds of the same variety of Pear when grafted on the wild
Pear."--DARWIN. Its economic value is considered to be but small, being
chiefly used for Marmalade,[236:1] but in Shakespeare's time, Browne
spoke of it as "the stomach's comforter, the pleasing Quince," and
Parkinson speaks highly of it, for "there is no fruit growing in the
land," he says, "that is of so many excellent uses as this, serving as
well to make many dishes of meat for the table, as for banquets, and
much more for their physical virtues, whereof to write at large is
neither convenient for me nor for this work."

FOOTNOTES:

[236:1] This was a very old use for the Quince. Wynkyn de Worde, in the
"Boke of Kervynge" (p. 266), speaks of "char de Quynce;" and John
Russell, in the "Boke of Nurture" (l. 75), speaks of "chare de Quynces."
This was Quince marmalade.

RADISH.

(1) _Falstaff._

When a' was naked, he was, for all the world, like a fork'd
Radish.

_2nd Henry IV_, act iii, sc. 2 (333).

(2) _Falstaff._

If I fought not with fifty of them, I am a bunch of Radish.

_1st Henry IV_, act ii, sc. 4 (205).

There can be no doubt that the Radish was so named because it was
considered by the Romans, for some reason unknown to us, _the_ root _par
excellence_. It was used by them, as by us, "as a stimulus before meat,
giving an appetite thereunto"--

"Acria circum
Rapula, lactucae, Radices, qua