OF BRITISH PLANTS. 167 



speaking of a polygonum, but meaning by that name a 

 horse-tail, says that it was called herba sanguinaria, from 

 its being used to make the nose bleed. Apuleius calls the 

 horsetail millefolium, and this term millefolium was subse- 

 quently transferred to the yarrow, which acquired the 

 names of Herba sanguinaria and Nose bleed, and with the 

 names the remedial character of the horse-tail, and its 

 superstitious appliances. See SANGUINARY. 



Achillsea Millefolium, L. 



NOSTOC, some alien word, the name of a genus of Algse 

 so called. See FALLEN STARS. Tremella Nostoc, L. 



NUT, A.S. hnut, Ic. hnitt, Sw. nott, Da. nodd, G. nms, 

 L. nux, words connected with knit, knot, knopf, knob, im- 

 plying a hard round lump. 



BLADDER-, from its inflated capsule, 



Staphylea pinnata, L. 



CHEST-, . Castanea vesca, DC. 



EARTH-, or PIG-, or JUR-, or HOG-, 



Bunium flexuosum, With. 



FRENCH-, the walnut, Juglans regia, L. 



HAZEL-, or WOOD-, Corylus Avellana, L. 



WAL-, Juglans regia, L. 



OAK, A.S. ac, cec, Scot aik, O.N. eik, Sw. ek, Da. eg, 

 Ic. eyk, L.G-. eek and eik, G. eiche, O.H.G. eih, the h having 

 a guttural sound. All these words refer to the fruit of the 

 tree, the acorn, from which, as its most useful product, the 

 oak took its name. " During the Anglo-Saxon rule," says 

 Selby, p. 227, " and even for some time after the Conquest, 

 oak forests were chiefly valued for the fattening of swine. 

 Laws relating to pannage, or the fattening of hogs in the 

 forest, were enacted during the Heptarchy, and by Ina's 

 statutes any person wantonly injuring or destroying an 

 oak-tree was mulcted in a fine varying according to its 

 size, or the quantity of mast it produced." Quercus, L. 



