86 NOTES. 



1. 1 8. Smertwyrt. Mr. Cockayne has sraero wyrt, 

 a form which has led him in his Glossary to think 

 of Butterwort, Pinguecula. It is true he worked 

 from the MSS., and I have both here and at p. 27 

 only used printed authorities ; but Wanley and Wright 

 produce ' Aristolockia smertwyrt' from different INISS. 

 Moreover smertwyrt can justify itself as applied 

 to Aristolochia, which smerowyrt fails to do. It 

 would be appropriate to a plant highly valued as 

 a styptic in parturition, and stnei-t might mean the 

 pains of childbirth. The English popular name for 

 the plant is Birth wort. There is only one species in 

 this island, namely A. clematitis ; and this is held by 

 botanists to be an old garden-plant escaped and wilded. 

 Against the reading smert may be urged that the word 

 is not else found in Saxon times ; — it does not fijrure 

 in literature till the thirteenth century, and then pretty 

 freely. This ought to make us cautious, but not 

 obdurate : it would be all the more interesting to 

 recover an instance of a word that doubtless was quite 

 current in speech. It is remarkable that ©d^utcvj in 

 like manner can hardly be found in 0. 11. German, 

 but in M. H. German it is familiar. Luther has used 

 the word for birth-pains, though it is not his most usual 

 word in that connection. 



1. 24. Camemeleon, i.e. x*'y'"'^'/"?^o''= ground apple. 

 Pliny speaking of Anthemis, says : Vocant alii Cham- 

 aemelon quoniam odorem mali habeat. xxii. 21. 



P. 3, 1. 18. Centauria minor. Gerard's description 

 of this plant is, \vith the help of his figures, quite dis- 

 tinct and decisive. 



' The lesser Centorie is a little herbe : it groweth 

 vp with a cornered stalke, halfe a foot high, with 

 leaues in form and bignesse of Saint lohn's woort ; 

 the flowers growe at the top in a spokie bush or 

 rumlell, of a red colour tending to puqile, which in 



