OF BRITISH PLANTS. 213 



SHEPHERD'S, or POOR MAN'S WEATHER-GLASS, from its 

 closing its flowers before rain, the pimpernel, 



Anagallis arvensis, L. 



SHERE-GRASS (Turn. i. 112), sedge, from its cutting 

 edges, A.S. sceran, shear, Cares, L. 



SHORE-GRASS, or SHORE-WEED, from its usual place of 

 growth, Littorella lacustris, L. 



SICKLE-WORT, L. secula, from the shape of its flowers, 

 which seen in profile resemble a sickle, 



Prunella vulgaris, L. 



SIETHES, in Tusser, a kind of chives, spelt in Holybande 

 SIEVES, from the Fr. cive, Allium fissile, L. 



SILVER FIR, from its silvery whiteness, 



Pinus picea, L. 



SILVER-WEED, L. Argentina, from the silvery glitter of 

 the under surface of its leaves, Potentilla anserina, L. 



SIMPLERS' JOY, from the good sale they had for so highly 

 esteemed a plant, the vervain, Verbena omcinalis, L. 



SIMSON, Fr. sene$on, in Bulleyn SBNTION, and in the 

 Eastern counties SENCION, corruptions of L. senecio, -onis, 

 a name derived from senex, an old man, and given to the 

 common groundsel in allusion to its heads of white hair, 

 the pappus upon the seed : 



" Quod canis similis videatur flore capillis." Macer ; 



or, as Bulleyn expresses it: "because the flower of this 

 herbe hath white hair, and when the winde bloweth it 

 away, then it appereth like a bald-headed man." 



Senecio vulgaris, L. 



SINKFIELD, a corruption of cinquefoil, Potentilla, L. 



SKEG, the sloe-tree,, in Ph. Holland's Pliny (b. xviii. c. 6) 

 and Florio, from its rending clothes, as a sceg, or ragged 

 projecting stump might, Prunus spinosa, L. 



SKEWER-WOOD, from skewers being made of it, the 

 spindle-tree, Evonymus europseus, L. 



