Le Morte Arthur, 864.

GILLIFLOWERS, see Carnations.

GINGER.

(1)Clown.I must have Saffron to colour the Warden pies—Mace—Dates?none, that's out of my note;Nutmegs, seven—a race or two of Ginger,but that I may beg.
Winter's Tale, act iv, sc. 3 (48).
(2)Sir Toby.Dost thou think, because thou art virtuous, there shall be no more cakes and ale.
Clown.Yes, by St. Anne, and Ginger shall be hot i' the mouth too.
Twelfth Night, act ii, sc. 3 (123).
(3)Pompey.First, here's Young Master Rash, he's in for acommodity of brown paper and old Ginger,nine score and seventeen pounds, of which hemade five marks ready money; marry, then,Ginger was not much in request, for the oldwomen were all dead.
Measure for Measure, act iv, sc. 3 (4).
(4)Salanio.I would she were as lying a gossip in that asever knapped Ginger.
Merchant of Venice, act iii, sc. 1 (9).
(5)2nd Carrier.I have a gammon of bacon and two razes ofGinger to be delivered as far as Charing Cross.
1st Henry IV, act ii, sc. 1 (26).
(6)Orleans.He's of the colour of the Nutmeg.
Dauphin.And of the heat of the Ginger.
Henry V, act iii, sc. 7 (20).
(7)Julia.What is't you took up so Gingerly?
Two Gentlemen of Verona, act i, sc. 2 (70).
(8)Costard.An I had but one penny in the world, thoushould'st have it to buy Ginger-bread.
Love's Labour's Lost, act v, sc. 1 (74).
(9)Hotspur.Swear me, Kate, like a lady as thou art,
A good mouth-filling oath, and leave "in sooth,"
And such protest of pepper Ginger-bread
To velvet-guards and Sunday-citizens.
1st Henry IV, act iii, sc. 1 (258).

Ginger was well known both to the Greeks and Romans. It was imported from Arabia, together with its name, Zingiberri, which it has retained, with little variation, in all languages.

When it was first imported into England is not known, but probably by the Romans, for it occurs as a common ingredient in many of the Anglo-Saxon medical recipes. Russell, in the "Boke of Nurture," mentions several kinds of Ginger; as green and white, "colombyne, valadyne, and Maydelyn." In Shakespeare's time it was evidently very common and cheap.

It is produced from the roots of Zingiber officinale, a member of the large and handsome family of the Ginger-worts. The family contains some of the most beautiful of our greenhouse plants, as the Hedychiums, Alpinias, and Mantisias; and, though entirely tropical, most of the species are of easy cultivation in England. Ginger is very easily reared in hotbeds, and I should think it very probable that it may have been so grown in Shakespeare's time. Gerard attempted to grow it, but he naturally failed, by trying to grow it in the open ground as a hardy plant; yet "it sprouted and budded forth greene leaves in my garden in the heate of somer;" and he tells us that plants were sent him by "an honest and expert apothecarie, William Dries, of Antwerp," and "that the same had budded and grown in the said Dries' garden."