On the popular names of British plants : being an explanation of the origin and meaning of the names of our indigenous and most commonly cultivated species / by R.C.A. Prior.

  • Prior, R. C. Alexander (Richard Chandler Alexander), 1809-1902.
Date:
1863
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the popular names of British plants : being an explanation of the origin and meaning of the names of our indigenous and most commonly cultivated species / by R.C.A. Prior. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    Worts, see Whortleberry, Yacciiiium Myrtillus, L. Wortes, in Chaucer, a general name for cultivated plants. Woundwort, from its soft downy leaves having been used instead of lint for dressing wounds, Stachys germanica, L. also, for the same reason, Anthyllis vulneraria, L. „ Clown’s, see under Clown. „ Knight’s Water-, from its sword-shaped leaves supposed, on the doctrine of signatures, to heal sword- wounds, Stratiotes aloides, L. Wrack, seaweed thrown ashore, from a Norse or Frisian word connected with Da. wage, reject, Du. wraken, Fucus, L. „ Grass-, from its long grass-like leaves, Zostera marina, L. Wych-Elm, or -hazel, that is, “ hutch-elm,” from its wood having been used to make the chests called by old writers hucches, wyches, or whycches, Fr. huche, A.S. hwcecce, in Pr. Pm. translated area, cista, in Chaucer wiche, in Caxton whutche, and applied by Sir John Mandeville to the Ark of the Testimony, which, as he says, “ Titus ledde with him to Rome.” These hutches or cistae were used for keeping provisions, as in a MS. in Rel. Ant. i. p. 43 : “ His hall rofe was full of bacon flytehes, The chambre charged was with wyches Pull of egges, butter, and chese.” The term was also applied to coffins. See Parker’s Gloss, under “ Chest.” The name might also be very plausibly derived from M.Lat. wicha, a wood, a word used in a MS. belonging to Mr. Th. Blount, quoted by Dufresne: “ Ego I. C. P. dedi abbatiao totam wicham.” But this use of wicha was probably local, and may in this passage have referred