ENGLISH PLANT NAMES. 37 
the place.’ It is conjectured that assafoetida is meant. See N. and Q. 
4, i. 235, 398. 
Bennels. (1) Phragmites communis, Trin. — E. Bord. Bot. E. Bord. 
The name is also applied to ‘ a kind of mats, made of reeds woven 
together, used for forming partitions in cottages ; or laid across the 
rafters to form an inner roof, Roxb ."^ — Jamieson. 
(2) ‘ The seed of flax. Roxb.' Also called Lint Bennels. — 
Jamieson. 
Bennergowan. Beilis pereniiis,^. — Scotl. (Dumfries). E". and Q. 4, 
viii. 143. 
Bennert (^. e. Bamvort). Beilis perennis, L. — Cumh. E. D. S. Gloss. 
C. 8. 
Bennet, or Bennets. (1) IJsually an equivalent of Bent, which see; 
but in A.ir. Cumh. applied to Beilis perennis, L,, and in this case a 
corruption of Banwort. Ger. calls Hordeum murinum, L., Way B. 
(2) Pimpinella Saxifraga, L. — Sal. (Stokesay). 
Bennet, Herb. (1) Geum urhanum, L. — Erom the old Eat. name, 
Herha benedida, blessed herb. ‘ Where the root is in the house the 
devil can do nothing, and flies from it ; wherefore it is blessed above 
all other herbs’ (Ort. San. c. clxxix.) Prior, p. 110. Glou. (Herbal 
Bennet); Sal. 
(2) Conium maculafum, L. — Ger. 
(3) Valeriana officinalis, L., fide Prior, p. 110. 
Bent, or Bents. A term of general significance, applied usually to 
the old stalks of various grasses {Glou. Cotswold Gloss. ; Nharnp. 
Sternb. ; Yks. Cleveland Gloss. ; Midlands, Marshall, E. D. S. Gloss. 
B. 5) ; in S. Bucks, and Cumb. it is principally applied to Cynosurus 
cristatus, L. ; in N. Yks. to Agrostis vulgaris, L. ; in Suff. (Moor) and 
Scotl. (Jamieson) to Triticum junceum, L. ; in Forfarsh., E. Bord. (Bot. 
E. Bord.), and other parts of Scotland (Jamieson), and the North of 
England (Brockett), to Psamma arenciria, Beauv. In E. D. S. Gloss. 
C. 2, it is explained as ‘ coarse sedge grass’ {Yks., Whitby). In E. 
Bord.. (Bot. E. Bord.) it is applied to Juncus squarrosus, L., which is 
probably the plant intended in E. D. S. Gloss. B. 2, by ‘ a species of 
rush which grows on the Moreland Hills ’(^. Yks.). Bailey (DAL) 
assigns it to Scirpus lacustris, L. The heads of Plantago major, L. , 
are so called in Wilts, and those of P. lanceolata, L., in Wilts and E. 
Yks. ; in the latter district the dry stalks of Hypocliceris radicata, L., 
are also so named. One correspondent states that Erica cinerea, L., 
is so called in W. dies.; and about Delamere Eorest [Ches.) the 
name is given to Calluna vulgaris, Salisb. Hal. Wr. and Nares 
understand the term in its extended sense. In Ger. Emac.,]o. 6, is 
the following note upon Phalaris arundinacea, L. : ‘ I take this to be 
the grasse with which we in London do usually adorne our chim- 
neys in sommer time ; and we commonly call the bundle of it hand- 
somely made up for our use by the name of Bents 1 Hal. also explains 
the word as ‘ a plain ; a common ; a field ; a moor ; so called from 
those places being frequently covered with the bent grass ; ’ and Hal. 
and Wr. both give the word Bentles, meaning ‘dry, sandy pastui es 
near the sea, covered chiefly with bent grass {East),’ which would here 
