OF BRITISH PLANTS. 165 



NETTLE, DEAI>-, Lamium, L. 



HEDGE-, from its nettle-like leaves and place of 

 growth, more properly Hedge Dead-nettle, 



Stachys sylvatica, L. 



HEMP-, Galeopsis, L. 



,, ROMAN-, from being found abundantly about 

 Romney in Kent, and the report that " Roman soldiers 

 brought the seed with them, and sowed it there for their 

 own use, to rub and chafe their limbs, when through 

 extreme cold they should be stifle and benurnmed ; having 

 been told that the climate of Britain was so cold, that it 

 was not to be endured without some friction or rubbing, to 

 warm their bloods and to stir up natural heat." Park- 

 kinson (Th. Bot. p. 441). Lyte's explanation of this and 

 other applications of the term " Roman" is more probable. 

 " It is a straunge herbe, and not common in the countrey, 

 and they do call al such straunge herbes as be unknowen 

 of the common people, Romish or Romayne herbes, although 

 the same be brought from Norweigh." 



Urtica pilulifera, L. 



NIGHTSHADE, A.S. niht-scada, O.H.G. naht-scato, from 

 its officinal Lat. name solatrum., which is derived, as an in- 

 strumental noun, from L. solari, soothe, as aratrum from 

 arare, and means " anodyne." Under this form we find it 

 in the Ort. San. (c, 349) ; and Matthioli, in speaking of the 

 Belladonna (c. 59), describes it as " earn plantam quam 

 herbariorum vulgus solatrum majus nominat." This word 

 solatrum has been mistaken for solem atrum, a black sun, 

 an eclipse, a shade as of night. Solanum, L. 



BITTERSWEET-, see BITTER-SWEET, 



Solanum Dulcamara, L. 



DEADLY-, Atropa Belladonna, L. 



ENCHANTER'S-, Circsea Lutetiana, L. 



WOODY-, the bittersweet. 

 NINETY-KNOT, see KNOT-GRASS and CENTINODE. 



