eaping the Wheat in the Kentish fields
that they were surrounded and successfully attacked by the British. He
tells us, however, that the cultivation of Wheat was chiefly confined to
Kent, and was not much known inland: "interiores plerique frumenta non
serunt, sed lacte et carne vivunt."--_De Bello Gallico_, v, 14. Roman
Wheat has frequently been found in graves, and strange stories have
been told of the plants that have been raised from these old seeds; but
a more scientific inquiry has proved that there have been mistakes or
deceits, more or less intentional, for "Wheat is said to keep for seven
years at the longest. The statements as to mummy Wheat are wholly devoid
of authenticity, as are those of the Raspberry seeds taken from a Roman
tomb."--HOOKER, "Botany" in _Science Primers_. The oft-repeated stories
about the vitality of mummy Wheat were effectually disposed of when it
was discovered that much of the so-called Wheat was South American
Maize.

FOOTNOTES:

[318:1] Yet Homer considered it to be indigenous in Sicily--Odyss: ix,
109--and Cicero, perhaps on the authority of Homer, says the same:
"Insula Cereris . . . ubi primum fruges inventae esse dicuntur."--_In
Verrem_, v, 38.

WILLOW.

(1) _Viola._

Make me a Willow cabin at your gate.

_Twelfth Night_, act i, sc. 5 (287).

(2) _Benedick._

Come, will you go with me?

_Claudio._

Whither?

_Benedick._

Even to the next Willow, about your own business.

_Much Ado About Nothing_, act ii, sc. 1 (192).

_Benedick._

I offered him my company to a Willow tree, either to make him
a garland, as being forsaken, or to bind him up a rod, as
being worthy to be whipped.

_Ibid._ (223).

(3) _Nathaniel._

These thoughts to me were Oaks, to thee like Osiers bow'd.

_Love's Labour's Lost_, act iv, sc. 2 (112).

(4) _Lorenzo._

In such a night
Stood Dido, with a Willow in her hand,
Upon the wild sea-banks.

_Merchant of Venice_, act v, sc. 1 (9).

(5) _Bona._

Tell him, in hope he'll prove a widower shortly,
I'll wear the Willow garland for his sake.

_3d Henry VI_, act iii, sc. 3 (227).

_Post._

[The same word