OF BRITISH PLANTS. 



lish Mercury," on account of its excellent qualities as a 

 remedy and as an esculent ; whence the proverb : 

 "Be thou sick or whole, Put Mercury in thy koole." 



Coghan (ch. 29). 

 Chenopodium Bonus Henricus, L. 



ALL-HEAL, see CLOWN'S ALL-HEAL. 



ALL-SEED, from the great quantity of its seed, 



Radiola Millegrana, Sm. 



and also Chenopodium polyspermum, L. 



and Polycarpon tetraphyllum, L. 



ALSIKE, Sw. alsike-klover, a clover so called from its 

 growing abundantly in the parish of Alsike near Upsal in 

 Sweden (J. H. Lunden in N. and Q.) 



Trifolium hybridum, L. 



AMADOU, from the Fr., a word of uncertain derivation, 

 Polyporus igniarius, Fries. 



AMARANTH, Gr. a/japavros, from a not, fiapaww, wither, 

 a word of not unfrequent occurrence in Milton and other 

 poets, as a vague name for some unfading flower. The 

 original species was one that, from its quality of reviving 

 its shape and colour when wetted with water, was much 

 used by the ancients for winter chaplets. The phrase in 

 St. Peter s 1st Epis. ch. v. 4, " a crown of glory that fadeth 

 not away," is in the original, "the amarantine crown of 

 glory," TOV ajjuapavTivov r?;? Soa9 <rre<f)avov. The plants 

 which botanists call so are the species of the genus to which 

 the " Love lies bleeding" belongs. Amarantus, L. 



AMBROSE, a name given in old writings to some sweet- 

 scented herb, from Gr. a(j,,8po<ria, the food of immortals, 

 Skr. amrita, elixir of immortality, from a, not, and mri, 

 Lat. mori, die. It is uncertain what plant was meant by 

 the Greek term, but whatever this may have been, 

 Matthioli tells us in his Comment on Dioscorides, (1. iii. 

 c. 12,) that it was called so by the ancients, because a 

 continued use of it rendered men long-lived, in the 



