86 NOTES. 



1. 1 8. Smert wyrt. Mr. Cockayne has smerowyrt, 

 a form which has led him in his Glossary to think 

 of Butterwort, Pinguecula. It is true he worked 

 from the MSS., and I have both here and at p. 27 

 only used printed authorities ; but Wanley and Wright 

 produce ' Aristolochia smertwyrt' from different MSS. 

 Moreover smertwyrt can justify itself as applied 

 to Aristolochia, which smerowyrt fails to do. It 

 would be appropriate to a plant highly valued as 

 a styptic in parturition, and smert might mean the 

 pains of childbirth. The English popular name for 

 the plant is Birthwort. There is only one species in 

 this island, namely A. clematitis ; and this is held by 

 botanists to be an old garden-plant escaped and wilded. 

 Against the reading smert may be urged that the word 

 is not else found in Saxon times ; it does not figure 

 in literature till the thirteenth century, and then pretty 

 freely. This ought to make us cautious, but not 

 obdurate : it would be all the more interesting to 

 recover an instance of a word that doubtless was quite 

 current in speech. It is remarkable that ^djttterj in 

 like manner can hardly be found in 0. H. German, 

 but in M. H. German it is familiar. Luther has used 

 the word for birth-pains, though it is not his most usual 

 word in that connection. 



1. 24. Camemeleon, i.e. x a t Ju ^^ 1 J^ ov = ground apple. 

 Pliny speaking of Anthemis, says : Vocant alii Cham- 

 aernelon quoniam odorem mali habeat. xxii. 2 1 . 



P. 3, 1. 1 8. Centauria minor. Gerard's description 

 of this plant is, with the help of his figures, quite dis- 

 tinct and decisive. 



' The lesser Centorie is a little herbe : it groweth 

 vp with a cornered stalke, halfe a foot high, with 

 leaues in form and bignesse of Saint lohn's woort : 

 the flowers growe at the top in a spokie bush or 

 rundell, of a red colour tending to purple, which in 



