116 POPULAR NAMES 



HOLY GRASS, from its Gr. name, iepa 



Hierochloe borealis, Rm. 



HOLY HAY, in some old works, the lucern, a mistaken 

 translation of Fr. sain-foin. See SAINFOIN. 



Medicago sativa, L. 



HOLY HERB, L. herba sacra, Gr. iepa ftoTavrj, the vervain, 

 so called, says Dioscorides, (b. iv. 61,) 8ia TO evxprja-rov ev 

 Tot9 KaQap/jbois eivai ei9 7Tpiafjifjuira, " from its being good in 

 expiations for making amulets." It acquired this character 

 from being used to decorate altars : " Ex ara sume verbenas 

 tibi;" Ter. in Andria; and, as Pliny tells us (b. 22, c. 2) f 

 "non aliunde sagmina in remediis publicis fuere, et in 

 sacris legationibus, quam verbena ; " and adds, " hoc est 

 gramen ex ara cum sua terra evulsum." It would seem 

 that branches of any kind used about the altar at sacred 

 festivals were called verbena, and being borne by an am- 

 bassador rendered his person inviolable ; and that the word 

 did not originally apply exclusively to that which we now 

 call vervain. Verbena officinalis, L. 



HOLY HOPE, a plant that from its hemp-like leaves was 

 fixed upon as the one that yielded the rope with which Jesus 

 was bound; just as there was a Christ's thorn, a Christ's 

 gall, a reed-mace, a Christ's ladder, etc., found to represent 

 the other incidents of the Crucifixion, 



Eupatorium cannabinum, L. 



HONESTY, from the transparency of its dissepiments, 



Lunaria biennis, L. 



HONEWORT, from its curing the hone, a hard swelling in 

 the cheek so called, Ger. p. 1018, Trinia glaberrima, L. 



and Sison Amomum, L. 



HONEYSUCKLE, A.S. hunig-sucle, a name that is now 

 applied to the woodbine, but it is very doubtful to what 

 plant it properly belongs. In the A.S. vocabularies it is 

 translated Ligustrum, which in other places means the 

 cowslip and primrose. In Parkinson and other herbalists 



