210 POPULAR NAMES 



infusion, without regard to its being properly the name of 

 a different plant. Pyrus doniestica, Sm. 



SERVICE, WILD-, the rowan tree, Pyrus aucuparia, Gart. 



SETWALL, from M.Lat. Zedoar or Zeduar, the name of 

 an Oriental plant for which this was sold, through the 

 changes of r to I, and z to s, by which we get Zeduar, 

 Zedualle, Setewale, as in Chaucer, and Setwal, a plant 

 usually understood to be Valeriana officinalis, L. 



but according to Lyte Valeriana pyrenaica, L. 



SETTERWORT, a plant so called because it was used for 

 the operation of Bettering, " Husbandmen are used to 

 make a hole, and put a piece of the root into the dewlap 

 of their cattle, as a seton, in cases of diseased lungs ; and 

 this is called pegging or Bettering." (Gerarde, p. 979.) 

 Setter is a corruption of seton, It. setone, a large seta, or 

 thread of silk. Helleborus ftetidus, L. 



SHAKER, from the tremulous motion of its spikelets, a 

 synonym of its other name, quaker, Briza media, L. 



SHALLOT, Fr. eschalotte, from L. Ascalonitis, of Ascalon 

 in Palestine, its native country, Allium ascalonicum, L. 



SHAMROCK, Erse seamrog, compounded of seamar, trefoil, 

 and og, little, the seamar, in the opinion of L. Diefenbach, 

 the same as sumar, in a word that is given by Marcellus 

 of Bordeaux, physician to Theodosius the Great, as the 

 Celtic name of clover, visumarus. The plants that for a 

 long time past have been regarded by the Irish as the true 

 shamrock, and worn by them on St. Patrick's Day, are the 

 black nonsuch, and the Dutch clover ; and these, but 

 chiefly and almost exclusively the first, are sold for the 

 national badge in Covent Garden, as well as in Dublin. 

 Intermixed with them are several other species of the same 

 two genera, medicago and trifolium, but no plant of any 

 other genus. Of late years, however, several writers have 

 adopted Mr. Bicheno's fancy, and advocated the claims of 

 the wood-sorrel to this honour, but certainly without the 



