OF BRITISH PLANTS. 217 



SOURINGS and SWEETINGS, crabs and sweet apples. 



SOUTHERNWOOD, A.S. sufternewude, abridged from 

 sufierne ivermod, southern wormwood, as in Lib. Med. 

 (0. Cockayne, Leechd. i. p. 51). 



Artemisia Abrotanum, L. 



SOWBANE, from being, as Parkinson tells us (Th. Bot. 

 p. 749), " found certain to kill swine," 



Chenopodium rubrum, L. 



SOWBREAD, G. saubrodt, L. panis pordnus, from its 

 tuber being the food of wild swine, 



Cyclamen europseum, L. 



Sow THISTLE, in Pr. Pm. thowthystil, A.S. pufepistel, or 

 pupistel, O.G. du-tistel, sprout thistle, from pufe, a sprout, 

 an indication of the plant having been valued for its edible 

 sprouts, which Evelyn tells us were eaten by Galen as a 

 lettuce, and, as we learn from Matthioli (1. ii. c. 124), they 

 were by the Tuscans, even in his day: "Soncho nostri 

 utuntur hyeme in acetariis." It seems to have been called 

 soiv-thistle, through its name in the Ortus Sanitatis (c. 

 cxlviii.) smve-distel, or, in some editions, saw-distel, a cor- 

 ruption of its A.S. and older German name. 



Sonchus oleraceus, L. 



SOWD-WORT, the soda-plant, the plant from the ashes of 

 which soda is obtained, Fr. soude, L. solida, soda being the 

 solid residue left by boiling a lye of its ashes, 



Salsola Kali, L. 



SOWER, WOOD-, see SORREL. 



SPARAGUS, in Evelyn's Acetaria, shortened from Lat. 

 Asparagus, as Emony from Anemony, by the mistake of 

 the initial vowel for the indefinite article, a or an, and still 

 further corrupted to SPARROW-GRASS ; an example of the 

 habit of the uneducated to explain an unknown word by a 

 more familiar one ; Asparagus officinalis, L. 



SPARROW-TONGUE, from its small acute leaves, the knot- 

 grass, Polygonum aviculare, L. 



