HABITS AND LATIN NAMES OB’ BRITISH PLANTS. 378 
answer the same purpose. Horses and Goats eat it. Sheep are not fond of it* 
Cows and Swine refuse it. 
Antherkum. —Av%/>wr, from otvQos, a flower, and a wall or precipice, 
applied by the Greeks to the stem of the Asphodel. 
Antkericum serotinum , Mountain Spiderwort.—The specific name, which is 
incorrect for a plant blossoming in June, seems to have originated in a confusion 
of synonyms between this Antherkum and Narcissus serotinus of Clus. Hist., 
Vol. 1 ., 162, f. copied in John Banhin’s Historia , and there placed with our 
Antherkum. 
Anthoxanthum. —From avQos xvQuv, flower of flowers; from its agreeable fra¬ 
grance ; or from a»Qos y a flower, and |av0o<r, yellow; from the yellowish hue of the 
spikes, especially in age. 
Anthoxanthum odoratum , Spring-grass, Sweet-scented Vernal-grass.-—This is 
one of our earliest Grasses, and principally occasions the delightful smell so 
peculiar to new-mown hay ; hence its name of odoratum , or sweet-scented. If 
the leaves are gathered and held in the hand a few minutes, they exhale a grate¬ 
ful odour, similar to that of Woodruff ( Asperula odorata). Boccone states that a 
distilled water may be prepared from it as the vehicle of some perfumes. If it 
be gathered while in flower, wrapped in a paper, and carried in the pocket, it 
retains the smell of new-mown hay for a long time. This fragrance depends, 
according to Vogel, upon the presence of benzoic acid. Mr. Thompson ingeni¬ 
ously observes, that as the odours of leaves depend chiefly on the exhalation of 
their essential oil, they are often regulated by circumstances affecting the excretory 
ducts of the follicular glands. Thus the duct being closed by the pressure of the 
cells, turgid with sap, in the fresh stem and leaf of Anthoxanthum odoratum , no 
odour is perceived; but it opens when these cells shrink, as the Grass dries, and 
then the agreeable perfume peculiar to new hay is exhaled. Cows, Goats, Sheep, 
and Horses eat it. It abounds chiefly in wet lands, flourishing in a peculiar 
manner on peat bogs. Mr. Sinclair, one of the highest authorities on this 
subject, states that “ its merits in respect to early growth, continuing to vegetate 
and throw up flowering stalks till the end of autumn, and its hardy and permanent 
nature, sufficiently uphold its claim to, a place in the composition of all permanent 
pastures. The superior nutritive qualities of its lattermath are a great recom¬ 
mendation for the purpose of grazing, the stalks being of but little utility, as 
they are generally left untouched by the cattle, provided there is a sufficiency of 
herbage.” The valves of the blossom adhere to the seed when it is ripe, and the 
jointed awn by its spiral contortions through the alternate moisture and dry¬ 
ness of the air, assisted by the awn and the hairs which cover the valves, 
which from the same cause act as so many levers, separates it from the receptacle? 
3d 2 
