urely this
is a verie good way for students." Mr. Ellacombe,[471] however,
considers that in "the dish of carraways," mentioned by Justice Shallow,
neither caraway seeds, nor cakes made of caraways, are meant, but the
caraway or caraway-russet apple. Most of the commentators are in favor
of one of the former explanations. Mr. Dyce[472] reads caraways in the
sense of comfits or confections made with caraway-seeds, and quotes from
Shadwell's "Woman-Captain" the following: "The fruit, crab-apples,
sweetings, and horse-plumbs; and for confections, a few carraways in a
small sawcer, as if his worship's house had been a lousie inn."

[471] "Plant-Lore of Shakespeare," pp. 17, 37.

[472] "Glossary," pp. 65, 66.

_Apricot._ This word, which is spelled by Shakespeare "apricock," occurs
in "Richard II." (iii. 4), where the gardener says:

"Go, bind thou up yond dangling apricocks,
Which, like unruly children, make their sire
Stoop with oppression of their prodigal weight."

And in "A Midsummer-Night's Dream" (iii. 1) Titania gives directions:

"Be kind and courteous to this gentleman,

* * * * *

Feed him with apricocks, and dewberries."

The spelling "apricock"[473] is derived from the Latin _praecox_, or
_praecoquus_; and it was called "the precocious tree," because it
flowered and fruited earlier than the peach. The term "apricock" is
still in use in Northamptonshire.

[473] See "Notes and Queries," 2d series, bk. i. p. 420.

_Aspen._ According to a mediaeval legend, the perpetual motion of this
tree dates from its having supplied the wood of the Cross, and that its
leaves have trembled ever since at the recollection of their guilt. De
Quincey, in his essay on "Modern Superstition," says that this belief is
coextensive with Christendom. The following verses,[474] after telling
how other trees were passed by in the choice of wood for the Cross,
describe the hewing down of the aspen, and the dragging of it from the
forest to Calvary:

"On the morrow stood she, trembling
At the awful weight she bore,
When the sun in midnight blackness
Darkened on Judea's shore.

"Still, when not a breeze is stirring,
When the mist sleeps on the hill,
And all other trees are moveless,
Stands the aspen, trembling still."

[474] See Henderson's "Folk-Lore of Northern Counties," 1879,
pp. 151, 152.

The Germans, says Mr