OF BRITISH PLANTS. 09 



DROPWORT, WATER-, from its use in stillicidium, and 

 growth in wet places, OEnanthe fistulosa, L. 



DRY-ROT, a name given to several species of fungus 

 destructive of wood, which they render dry and as if des- 

 troyed by fire (see Proceedings of Linn. Soc. for 1850, p. 

 80), but probably derived from tree, wood, A. S. trem r 

 and rot, Merulius lacrymans, Wulf. 



DUCK-MEAT or -WEED, an aquatic plant, a favourite food 

 of ducks, called in Pr. Pm. ende-mete, 



Lemna minor, L. 



DULSE, Gael, duillisg, from duille, leaf, and uisge, water, 

 a name given to several species of rose-spored alga?, and 

 more especially to 



Ehodomenia palmata, and Iridsea edulis, B. St. V. 



DUNSE-DOWN, a pleonasm, from Du. dons, which means 

 down, so called from its soft spikes, but whimsically 

 derived by Lobel from its making people dunck or deaf, 

 if it gets into their ears (Kruydtb. p. 113), the reed-mace, 



Typha latifolia, L. 



DUTCH CLOVER, or simply DUTCH, from the seed of it 

 having been very largely imported from Holland, 150 tons 

 annually, says Curtis in his Flor. Lond. 



Trifolium repens, L. 



DUTCH MYRTLE, L. Myrtus Brabantica, from its abound- 

 ing in Dutch bogs, and replacing the myrtle of more 

 genial climates, Myrica Gale, L. 



DUTCH RUSH, a rush-like plant imported from Holland, 

 Equisetum hyemale, L. 



DWALE, Da. dwale, torpor, trance, whence dwale-bcer, a 

 dwale- or trance-berry. In Chaucer (1. 4159), it is used 

 for a sleeping draught : " There nedeth him no dwale ;" 

 and in Lupton's 1000 notable things, we have (b. iv. 1) a 

 receipt for making Dwale for a patient to take, " while he 

 be cut, or burned by cauterising," the ingredients of which 

 are the juices of hemlock, nep, lettuce, poppy, and hen- 



