the Barnacle tree was firmly believed in, and Gerard gives a
plate of "the Goose tree, Barnacle tree, or the tree bearing Geese," and
says that he declares "what our eies have seene, and our hands have
touched."

A full account of the fable will be found in Harting's "Ornithology of
Shakespeare," p. 247, and an excellent account in Lee's "Sea Fables
Explained" (Fisheries Exhibition handbooks), p. 98. But neither of these
writers have quoted the testimony of Sir John Mandeville, which is,
however, well worth notice. When he was told in "Caldilhe" of a tree
that bore "a lytylle Best in Flessche in Bon and Blode as though it were
a lytylle Lomb, withouten Wolle," he did not refuse to believe them, for
he says, "I tolde hem of als gret a marveylle to hem that is amonges us;
and that was of the Bernakes. For I tolde hem, that in our Contree weren
Trees, that beren a Fruyt, that becomen Briddes fleeynge; and tho that
fallen in the Water lyven, and thei that fallen on the Erthe dyen anon;
and thei ben right gode to mannes mete. And here of had thei als gret
marvaylle that sume of hem trowed, it were an impossible thing to be"
("Voiage and Travaille," c. xxvi.).

BAY TREES.

(1) _Captain._

'Tis thought the King is dead; we will not stay.
The Bay-trees in our country are all wither'd.

_Richard II_, act ii, sc. 4 (7).

(2) _Bawd._

Marry come up, my dish of chastity with Rosemary and Bays!

_Pericles_, act iv, sc. 6 (159).

(3)

_The Vision_--Enter, solemnly tripping one after another,
six personages, clad in white robes, wearing on their
heads garlands of Bays, and golden vizards on their faces,
branches of Bays or Palms in their hands.

_Henry VIII_, act iv, sc. 2

It is not easy to determine what tree is meant in these passages. In the
first there is little doubt that Shakespeare copied from some Italian
source the superstition that the Bay trees in a country withered and
died when any great calamity was approaching. We have no proof that such
an idea ever prevailed in England. In the second passage reference is
made to the decking of the chief dish at high feasts with garlands of
flowers and evergreens. But the Bay tree had been too recently
introduced from the South of Europe in Shakespeare's time to be so used
to any great extent, though