OF BRITISH PLANTS. 3 



ALLER, A.S., eelr, air, aler, with a d inserted for euphony, 

 as in alderfirst, alderlast, Go. erila, whence G. erle, O.H.G. 

 elira, L. alnus. Garnett would connect it with words 

 implying moisture, as uligo, ulva, etc. (Phil. Ess. p. 30). 

 The similarity of the Danish elle with the name of fairies 

 in that language, elle-tra, and elk-folk, has misled Goethe 

 to give the name of erlen-konig to the fairy-king. There 

 is no etymological connection between the two. 



Alnus glutinosa, L. 



BLACK-, or BERRY-BEARING-, a buckthorn that 

 was wrongly associated by the older botanists with the 

 alder, but distinguished from it by bearing berries, 



Rhamnus Frangula, L. 



ALECOST, from L. costus, some unknown aromatic, and 

 ale, so called from its having formerly been esteemed an 

 agreeable aromatic bitter, and much cultivated in this 

 country for flavouring ale. " Put certaine handfuls of 

 this herbe in the bottom of a vessel, and tunne up new ale 

 upon it." Coghan (ch. 71.) See COSTMARY. 



Balsamita vulgaris, L. 



ALE-HOOF, ground-ivy, from ale, and hoof, which appears 

 to be the A.S. fmfe, crown, Du. huif, O.N. hufa, and to 

 have been given to this plant either as translating its Gr. 

 and Lat. names a-Tefyavwpa 7775, corona terrce ; or in 

 allusion to the chaplet that crowned the alestake at a 

 public-house, as in Chaucer (Prol. 1. 667) : 



"A gerlond haclde he sette upon his hede, 



As gret as it were for an ale-stake." 



J. and W. Grimm would regard it as a compound of ei, ivy, 

 and loof, leaf, but, as we shall see under IVY, the bush has 

 been so named from the herb, and not the herb from the 

 bush. See GILL. Nepeta Glechoma, Benth. 



ALEXANDERS or ALISANDERS, the horse-parsley, from its 

 Latin specific name Alcxandrinum, a name that Ray says 

 was given to it from its being a plant of Alexandria in 



