OF BRITISH PLANTS. 149 



grow do make beds of them, and strawe their houses and 

 chambers with them, insteede of rushes." 



Spartina stricta, L. 



MATHER or MAUTHER, a word used in the Eastern 

 counties to mean a girl of the working class, O.N. tnd&r, 

 a man, a human being, a word from which it is probable 

 that some prefix has been lost, a name applied to the wild 

 chamomiles as a translation of their Greek name irapdeviov. 

 See MAGHET and MAITHE. Anthemis Cotula, L. 



MAUDLIN, MAUDELINE, or MAWDELEYN, L. herba dh-ce 

 MaricB, It. herba di santa Maria, so called after St. Mary 

 Magdalene, either in allusion to her box of scented ointment, 

 as containing this aromatic ; or that, like other plants with 

 white ray florets, it was employed in uterine diseases, over 

 which, as the especial patroness of loose women, she was 

 supposed to preside. See COSTMARY and MAGHET. 



Balsamita vulgaris, L. 

 and Achillaea Ageratum, L. 



MAUDLIN-WORT, from its use in the same complaints as 

 the above, the moon-daisy, 



Chrysanthemum Leucanthemum, L. 

 It is necessary to observe that the monks in the middle 

 ages mixed up with the story of the Magdalene, as recorded 

 in Scripture, that of another St. Mary, whose early life was 

 passed in a course of debauchery : 



' ' Seint Marie Egipciake in Egipt was ibore. 

 Al hire yong lif heo ladde in sinne and in hore, 

 Unnethe zhe was tuelf yer old, ar zhe gon do folie, 

 Hire bodi and al here wille heo tok to sinne of lecherie." 



Cott. MS. Julius, D. ix., fol. 52, b, quoted 

 by Hampson, ii. 257. 



Her penance and pardon were a favourite subject for the 

 legends of all Western Europe. The attributes of the im- 

 pure goddess of the Egyptians, Isis, and of the Greek 

 Artemis, and the Koman Juno Lucina, have been transferred 



