OF BRITISH PLANTS. 161 



singular process. The plant was known both as a moth- 

 ivort and as a mother-wort, but while it was used almost 

 exclusively as a mother-wort, it still retained, at the same 

 time, the name of mug-wort, a synonym of moth-wort. In 

 JElfric's glossary it is called matrum herba. 



Artemisia vulgaris, L. 



MULBERRY, by a change of r to /, from L. morus, Gr. 

 popov, a word of unknown origin, which was introduced 

 into Greece with the tree, M. nigra, L. 



MULLEIN, or WHITE MULLEIN, in old works Molayne, 

 A.S. molegn, the hig-taper, Fr. moleine, the scab in cattle, 

 O.Fr. malen, L. malandrium, the malanders or leprosy, 

 whence malandrin, a brigand, from lepers having been 

 driven from society, and forced to a lawless life. The term 

 malandre was applied to other diseases of cattle, to lung 

 diseases among the rest, and Marcellus Bmpiricus explains 

 it as "morbus jumenti quo tussit." The hig-taper, being 

 used for these, acquired its names of Mullein, and bullock's 

 lungwort. Verbascum Thapsus, L. 



PETTY-, the cowslip. " Those herbes," says Ge- 

 rarde, " which at this day are called Primroses, Cowslips, 

 and Oxelips, are reckoned among the kinds of Mulleins, 

 for that the ancients have named them Verbasculi, that is 

 to saie, small Mulleins." Primula veris, L. 



MULLET, FLEABANE-, a plant used to destroy fleas, and 

 called mullet, Fr. mollet, from its soft leaves, 



Inula dysenterica, L. 



MUSCOVY, or MUSK, from its odour, 



Erodium moschatum, L'Her. 



MUSHROOM, Fr. mouscheron, at present spelt moicsseron, 

 a name applied to several species of Agaricus, and derived 

 by Diez from mousse, moss, with which it is difficult to see 

 how mushrooms are connected. One of the most con- 

 spicuous of the genus, the A. muscarius, is used for the 



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