OF BRITISH PLANTS. 33 



of wool, flax, or hemp combed out in carding : but upon 

 dock being extended from the bur-dock to other broad-leaved 

 plants, the first syllable was added, to distinguish this 

 species (which pre-eminently deserved the name by the 

 trouble it gave housewives) from plants of the sorrel and 

 other tribes. The word bur is the Fr. bourre, L. burra, 

 and primarily means the lump or tangled mass of refuse 

 fibre, of which the involucre of this species formed the 

 nucleus. See HARDOCK. Arctium Lappa, L. 



BUR MARIGOLD, a composite flower allied to the mari- 

 gold, with seeds that adhere to the clothes, like burs, 



Bidens tripartite, L. 

 BUR PARSLEY, from its bur-like bristly carpels, 



Caucalis daucoides, L. 



BUR REED, from its narrow reed-like leaves, and the 

 burs formed by its seed vessels, 



Sparganium ramosum, L. 

 BUR THISTLE, from its prickly involucre, 



Carduus lanceolatus, L. 



BUR-WEED, or BURDOCK CLOTWEED, a weed with large 

 leaves and burs somewhat like those of the burdock or 

 clotbur, Xanthiam strumarium, L. 



BURNET, a term formerly applied to a brown cloth, Fr. 

 brunette, It. brunetta, dims, of brun and bruno, and given to 

 the plant so called from its brown flowers, 



Poterium Sanguisorba, L. 



BURNET BLOOD-WORT, from its power of stanching blood, 

 and its resemblance to burnet, 



Sanguisorba officinalis, L. 



BURNET SAXIFRAGE, from its supposed lithontriptic 

 qualities, and the resemblance of its leaves to burnet, 



Pimpiuella Saxifraga, L. 

 BURSTWORT, from it supposed efficacy in ruptures, 



Herniaria glabra, L. 

 BUTCHER'S BROOM, according to Loudon, and to the 



