OF BRITISH PLANTS. 15 



given to it by reason of the drinke therewith made called 

 beere, and from beerlegh it came to berlegh, and from ber- 

 legh to barley. It would seem that, as the language be- 

 came corrupted by the settlement of Danes and French in 

 the country, and the vowels less correctly pronounced, the 

 lie was added to prevent confusion. The dictionary deri- 

 vation of it from the Welsh barlys is untenable, both for 

 philological reasons, and for that it is highly improbable 

 that the English of the twelfth century would have bor- 

 rowed from a half-civilized mountain race a name for a 

 familiar plant. See BEAR. Hordeum vulgare, L. 



WALL-, see MOUSE BARLEY. 



BARNABY-THISTLE, from its flowering about the time 

 of St. Barnabas' day, the llth of June, old style, which 

 corresponds to the 22nd June of the new. 



Centaurea solstitialis, L. 



BARREN-WORT, called so, says Gerarde, p. 389, " because 

 it is an enemy to conception, and not because it is described 

 by Dioscorides as being barren both of flowers and leaves." 

 Nevertheless, this belief in its sterilizing powers may be 

 due to the remark of Dioscorides, who must have meant 

 some other plant, for this seeds very freely in Styria and 

 other parts of Austria. 



Epimedium alpinum, L. 



BASE-BROOM, L. Genista humilis, a name that does not, 

 as its Latin synonym would lead us to suppose, refer to its 

 lowly growth as compared with that of the common 

 broom, but to its being used as a base to prepare woollen 

 cloths for the reception of scarlet and other dyes. 



Genista tinctoria, L. 



BASE-ROCKET, a mignonette so called from its rocket- 

 like leaves, and its being used as a base in dyeing woollen 

 cloths. See Aubrey's Wilts (ed. Jackson), p. 50. 



Reseda lutea, L. 



