OF BRITISH PLANTS. 231 



sold in the shops in Lyte's time, Gr. dOavacria, immortality, 

 referring to a passage in Lucian's Dialogues of the Gods 

 (no. iv.), where Jupiter, speaking of Ganymede, says to 

 Mercury, aTrcuye avrov, o> 'EpjAT), KO.L Tnovra TT;? aOavaaias 

 aye olvo-^orjaavra fjfjuv. " Take him away, and when he has 

 drunk of immortality, bring him back as cupbearer to us." 

 The aOavaaia here has been misunderstood, like afj,(3poa-ia 

 in other passages, for some special plant. Dodoens says 

 (1. i. 2, 16), that it was called so, " quod non cito.flos ina- 

 rescat," which is scarcely true. Hyac. Ambrosinus, in his 

 Phytologia, p. 82, says : " Athanasia ita vocata quia ejus 

 succus vel oleum extractum cadavera a putredine conser- 

 vat." Tanacetum, its systematic name, is properly a bed 

 of tansy, and is a word of modern origin. 



Tanacetum vulgare, L. 

 GOOSE-, or WILD-, from its tansy-like leaves, 



Potentilla anserina, L. 



TARE, an obscure word for which many derivations have 

 been proposed. In old works it is usually combined with 

 fytcke, as the tare-fytche. The word tire-lupin in Rabelais' 

 preface seems to explain it as derived from Fr. tirer, drag, 

 and to mean a vetch that pulls other plants towards it. 



Lathyrus, Ervum, Vicia. 



TARRAGON, a corruption of its Lat. specific name, mean- 

 ing " a little dragon," Artemisia Dracunculus, L. 



TASSEL-GRASS, a grass-like plant with bunches of delicate 

 leaves like tassels, Ruppia maritima, L. 



TEASEL, A.S. tcesel, from tcesan, tease, applied metaphori- 

 cally to scratching cloth, Dipsacus fullonum, L. 



TENCH-WEED, either from its growing in ponds where 

 tench have broken up the puddling by burrowing in it ; or, 

 as Forby says, " from its having a slime or mucilage about 

 it that is supposed to be very agreeable to that fish ; " 



Potamogeton natans, L. 



TENT-WORT, the wall rue, a fern so called from its having 



