OF BRITISH PLANTS. 221 



be the same word differently developed. Cotgrave gives a 

 Fr. spurrie. Spergula arvensis, L. 



SPURT-GRASS, a rush of which the baskets were made, 

 that were called in A.S. spyrtan, and which seem, from one 

 of JSlfric's colloquies, to have been used for catching fish. 

 This word spyrta has probably been formed from L.sporta, 

 a basket made of spartum, the Sp. esparto, the grass so 

 much used for mats and baskets in the South, and related 

 to Gr. o-Treipao), twist, wreathe. 



Scirpus lacustris and maritimus, L. 



SQUILL, L. scilla or squilla, Gr. ovaXXa. The same word, 

 the It. squilla, is now used to mean the small evening bell 

 sounded from the campanili in Italy for vespers service, 

 and this Diez would derive from O.H.G. skilla, G. schelle, 

 and the verb skellan, ring, and quotes a passage from the 

 Lex. Sal. " Si quis schillam de caballo furaverit," to show 

 its original use as a horse-bell. It seems far more probable 

 that the little bell should have been so called from its 

 resemblance to the bulb of an Italian plant, and its name 

 have been adopted by other nations with the Christian 

 religious rites, than that Italians should have first learnt a 

 name for such an old invention from the Germans. But 

 be the origin of squilla what it may, the flower was not 

 called so from any resemblance to a bell, as its synonym 

 " Harebell" might lead us to suppose, but is simply the 

 Gr. word ovaXXa. Scilla nutans, etc. Sm. 



SQUINANCY, from its supposed efficacy in curing the 

 disease so called in old authors, viz. the quinsy, Fr. esqui- 

 nancie, M.L. squinancia, It. schinanzia, Gr. Kwcvyx?), from 

 KVO)V, dog, and o7%o>, strangle, a dog-choking disease, one 

 in which the patient, from inflammation and swelling of 

 the fauces, is obliged to gasp with his mouth open like a 

 strangled dog, Asperula cynanchica, L. 



SQUINANCY BERRIES, black currants, from their use in 

 sore throat, Eibes nigrum, L. 



