OF BRITISH PLANTS. 17 



from the Latin. The plant probably came from an Eastern 

 country, and by the northern, and not the Mediterranean 

 route, and the name with it. Vicia Faba, L. 



BEAR, BEER, or BERE, A.S. beer, Fris. bar, barley, a grain 

 that might seem to have been so called from beer, the liquor 

 brewed from it, a word for which L. Diefenbach remarks 

 that " sichere Btymologien fehlen noch." Outzen and 

 several other philologists support this derivation of it, but 

 J. Grimm would trace it to Go. bairan, bear, whence baris, 

 gen. barizis, O.N. barr, gen. bars. Gesch. d. Deutsch. 

 Sprache, i. p. 65. It may be related to Hind, bagra, a kind 

 of millet (holcus spicatus, L.), that is much cultivated in 

 the mountains of the north of India. In our northern 

 counties bear means the four-rowed variety of barley and 

 bigg the six-rowed. Brockett, p. 25. Hordeurn vulgare, L. 



BEARBERRY or BEAR'S BILBERRY, from its fruit being a 

 favourite food of bears, Arctostaphylos uva ursi, L. 



BEAR-BIND or BARE-BIND, from binding together the 

 stalks of bear or barley, Convolvulus arvensis, L. 



BEAR'S-BREECH, from its roughness, a name transferred 

 by some mistake from the acanthus to the cow-parsnip, 

 Heracleum Sphondylium, L. 



BEAR'S-EARS, from its former Latin name, ursi auricula, 

 in allusion to the shape of its leaf, Primula Auricula, L. 



BEAR'S-FOOT, from its digitate leaf, 



Helleborus foatidus, L. 



BEAR'S-GARLICK, so called, says Tabernsemontanus, 

 " quia ursi eo delectantur," Allium ursinum, L. 



BEARWORT, from the G. barwurz, which Adelung sug- 

 gests is rather to be derived from its use in uterine com- 

 plaints than from the animal, Meum athamanticum, L. 



BEDE-SEDGE, from its round bead-like burs, resembling 

 the beads used by Roman Catholics and Buddhists for 

 counting their prayers, A.S. bead, a prayer, a name given 

 to it by Turner, Sparganium ramosum, L. 



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