158 Mr. Hardy's Botanical Notices. 



people do trimme their houses." These men saw how 

 admirable it was ; but it remained for Linnseus to pronounce 

 its eulogium, " Whose stature, size, or sweet odour, if any 

 one considers, he will allot to it the foremost place among all 

 the grasses." (" Flor. Lapp.," p. 23). 



Gerard is so good as tell us that " the chaffie heads " are 

 "like to 'Milium' or Millet, whereof it tooke the name." 

 But it had no name in English till he translated the " Gramen 

 miliaceum " of Lobel ; which is an adaptation from the 

 German " Hirse " or " Hirsengras." (Hirse, i.e. Millet.)* 

 Lobel also calls it " Saet-gras ;" seed or corn-grass ; the 

 shining seeds being like a diminutive sort of grain. 



The dried grass retains for a long time an agreeable odour, 

 which Linnaeus compares to that of Melilot. (" Flora 

 Suecica," Ed. 2, p. 21). The poorer Swedes who could not 

 attain the rich perfumes of foreign lands, appear from the 

 choice names they give them, to prize their own woodland 

 scents. They call the Milium, " Myskegras," i.e. wood-roof 

 grass ; and " Lukt-gras," or scented grass. In Oeland, the 

 Asperula, and Milium, together with Melilot seeds are wrapt 

 up in their clothes by the peasants to dispel moths or bacon- 

 worms. Mites also are a sore evil, which it is employed to 

 get rid of. ( a Linne Reisen durch Oeland," &c, i., p. 69, 

 Halle, 1764). The contents of the scent-bag of the Lapland 

 maidens is a mixture of Millet grass and tobacco. (" Flor. 

 Lapp.," p. 23). It is also the Swedish " Hazel-brodd," i.e. 



* Of the unusual word Hirse, the root-term has heen given up as hopeless by 

 Dr. Prior in his " Popular Names of British Plants," p. 115; he only being 

 able to suggest cerevisia, " from ale being brewed from it" This will net bear 

 looking at. The Greek for Millet is Cenchros (Kengchros), or Cenchrys 

 (Strabo) ; (n being equal to ng) ; a word with which we are familiar in 

 Cenchrea, the port of Corinth Kenchrimides were the numerous grains of the 

 fig, or the nuclei of the olive, ("Suidas Lex." i., p. 1428); and P na and 

 Lobel, (" Stirp. Advers.," p. 13), imagine that this is the primary application 

 of the term. There is, at least, a mutual likeness in each. The German 

 hirse, Belgic Mrs, hirrse, heers, (" Kilian") and Danish Mrs, appear to me still 

 to represent this Greek name ; the initial portion has either perished or has 

 dwindled to an aspirate ; but the bones remain in the latter part. There is a 

 still stronger Flemish form in gears, found in Gerard Vossius (" Etymolog. 

 Ling. Lat,"), and in Dutch dictionaries. " Ieuers, geguers, or giaures," of 

 MatthioK ; or jevers, gegvers, giavers, as Menzel prints it, shew the out- 

 goings of the word in a different direction. These terms of the Arabian 

 physicians, manifest modifications of the Greek name, and almost the counter- 

 part of the Teutonic hirse and geers, are excellent proofs of the source from 

 which the latter also emanated. Millet, comprising a variety of similar 

 grains, in penetrating Germany, through the ramifications of Greek commerce, 

 or the extension of cultivation, lost the half of its name by the transition. 

 Similarly, rice is oryza, lopped off at both ends. 



