FOOTNOTES:
[137:1] The very name suggests this association. Lavender is the English form of the Latin name, Lavendula; "lavendula autem dicta quoniam magnum vectigal Genevensibus mercatoribus præbet quotannis in Africam eam ferentibus, ubi lavandis fovendisque corporibus Lybes ea utuntur, nec nisi decocto ejus abluti, mane domo egrediuntur."—Stephani Libellus de re Hortensi, 1536, p. 54. The old form of our "laundress" was "a Lavendre."
LEATHERCOAT, see [Apple].
LEEK.
| (1) | Thisbe. | His eyes were green as Leeks. |
| Midsummer Night's Dream, act v, sc. 1 (342). | ||
| (2) | Pistol. | Tell him I'll knock his Leek about his pate uponSaint Davy's Day. |
| Henry V, act iv, sc. 1 (54). | ||
| (3) | Fluellen. | If your majesties is remembered of it, the Welshmendid good service in a garden where Leeksdid grow, wearing Leeks in their Monmouthcaps; which your majesty knows to this hour isan honourable badge of the service; and I dobelieve your majesty takes no scorn to wear theLeek upon Saint Tavy's Day. |
| Ibid., act iv, sc. 7 (101). | ||
| (4) | In act v, sc. 1, is the encounter between Fluellen and Pistol,when he makes the bully eat the Leek; this causessuch frequent mention of the Leek that it would benecessary to extract the whole scene, which, therefore,I will simply refer to in this way. | |
We can scarcely understand the very high value that was placed on Leeks in olden times. By the Egyptians the plant was almost considered sacred, "Porrum et cæpe nefas violare et frangere morsu" (Juvenal); we know how Leeks were relished in Egypt by the Israelites; and among the Greeks they "appear to have constituted so important a part in ancient gardens, that the term πρασιά, or a bed, derived its name from πρασον, the Greek word for Onion," or Leek[138:1] (Daubeny); while among the Anglo-Saxons it was very much the same. The name is pure Anglo-Saxon, and originally meant any vegetable; then it was restricted to any bulbous vegetable, before it was finally further restricted to our Leek; and "its importance was considered so much above that of any other vegetable, that leac-tun, the Leek-garden, became the common name of the kitchen garden, and leac-ward, the Leek-keeper, was used to designate the gardener" (Wright). The plant in those days gave its name to the Broad Leek which is our present Leek, the Yne Leek or Onion, the Garleek (Garlick), and others of the same tribe, while it was applied to other plants of very different families, as the Hollow Leek (Corydalis cava), and the House Leek (Sempervivum tectorum).
