18 
HABITS AND LATIN NAMES OF BRITISH PLANTS. 
sembles Samphire, and considerable quantities of it are pickled and sold for that 
plant. 
Arenaria peploides , Sea Chickweed or Sandwort.—Peculiar to the sandy shores 
of the sea, but there found in abundance. Its juices partake of the alkaline 
nature of other succulent maritime plants. In Yorkshire it is frequently used 
as a pickle. 
Arenaria ienuifolia , Fine-leaved Sandwort.—The flowers are very small and 
inconspicuous, rarely expanding but in bright sunshine, and are soon past. It is 
a little plant of insignificant appearance, whose use either to mankind or the 
brute creation is hitherto unknown. 
Arenaria rerna , Vernal Sandwort.-—It has been remarked by the Rev. J. 
Pike Jones, in his Botanical Tour , that this plant has the peculiar power of 
resisting the deleterious effect of the metallic oxides which pervade the refuse 
heaps thrown out from mines, and is found to flourish in such situations, usually 
destructive to vegetable life. 
Aristolochia. —A^o-roAo^c/a, from ugia-ros, good, and Ao^s/a, parturition, on 
account of its medicinal qualities. 
Aristolochia clematitis , Birth-wort.—The anthers being situated under the 
stigma, could scarcely fulfil their function without extraneous assistance. The 
little insect being entangled in the hairy tube of the blossom, in its efforts to 
escape, performs the important office of anointing the stigma with the pollen. 
And thus in other instances, as Cowper remarks, 
-« When summer shines, 
The Bee transports the fertilizing meal 
From flower to flower, and even the breathing air 
Wafts the rich prize to its appointed use.” 
The root is aromatic and bitter, but not ungrateful to the palate. It has been 
used in the Portland powder for the cure of the gout, but not without producing 
effects more formidable than the original disease. As a warm stimulating medi¬ 
cine it still retains a place in some Pharmacopoeias. By the ancients great 
virtues were attributed to it, as appears from Dioscorides, Galen, and Pliny. 
An opinion is said to prevail in France, that the produce of vineyards in which 
this plant abounds becomes deteriorated in quality. 
Arrhenatherum. —Named from a^v, male, and ctQng, an awn. 
Arrhenatherum avenaceum , Common Oat-like Grass.—Cows, Sheep, and Goats 
eat it. It affords a large coarse crop, but is unpalatable to cattle, especially to 
Horses. It is excessively bitter. A variety with knobby roots ( Gramen 
caninum nodosum of Gerard) is a most noxious weed in arable lands; particu¬ 
larly on parts of the coast in Hampshire; and by its introduction into the island 
of St. Kitt’s, a district has been rendered useless. To eradicate the bulbous-rooted 
