Notes

Volpes

Fox

The woodcut doesn’t depict fox tails, but the tails of dogs harrying them in their dens.

Alopecuros

An example of the plants which have a spike is the plant which some call ‘dog’s eye’ (rib-grass), which comprises several forms; we have also ‘foxbrush,’ stelephuros (plantain), which some call ‘lamb’s tongue’ and some ‘quail-plant’; and somewhat similar to this is thryallis. These are simple plants and uniform in character, having a spike which is not pointed nor bearded; while in ‘fox-brush’ it is soft and somewhat downy, in that it actually resembles the brush of a fox, whence also it has obtained its name. Similar to this is stelephuros (plantain), except that it does not, like that plant, flower here and there, but all up the spike like wheat.

Alopecuros

Aliud rursus spicatarum genus, ex quo est achynops, alopecuros, stelephuros,—quam quidam ortygem vocant, alii plantaginem, de qua plura dicemus inter medicas—, thryallis. ex his alopecuros spicam habet mollem et lanuginem densam non dissimilem vulpium caudis, unde et nomen. proxuma ei est et stelephuros, nisi quod illa particulatim floret. cichorion et similia circa terram folia habent germinantia ab radice post vergilias.

Eared plants are yet another kind, to which belong achynops, alopecuros, stelephuros—by some called ortyx, by others plantago, about which I shall speak more fully in the section on medicinal plants—and thryallis. Of these alopecurus has a soft ear and thick down, not unlike the tail of a fox [Alopecurus = fox-tail]; hence too its name. Stelephuros is very like it, except that it blossoms bit by bit. Chicory and the plants like it have leaves near the ground, budding from the root after the Pleiades.

alopecuros

D’ἀλώπηξ, renard, et οὐρά, queue.

Alopecuros

Pliny xxi. 17, § 61.

alopecuros

Αλωπεχουροζ (Théophraste, H.P., VII, 10) — de αλωπηξ, renard, ουρα, queu; allusion à la forme de l’épi. « Spicam habet mollem et lanuginem densam, non dissimilem vulpium caudis ». Pline, XXI, 61. Il s’agit évidemment d’une graminée : Saccharum cylindricum, Lmk? si on l’interprète comme Dalechamps, ou Polypogon monspelliense, Desf.? pour Fée. Pena et Lobel appellent Αλωπεχονροζ Theophrasti et Cauda vulpis Monspellliensium notre Lagurus ovatis, L. — Le nom d’Alopecurus désigne aujourd’hui un autre g. de Graminées, le Vulpin.

alopecuros

thus alopecuros or foxtail grass…

pas similitude

Toutes ces plantes, dans De latinis nominibus, sauf pour le delphinium.

Alopecuros

De ἀλωπήξ, «renard», et οὐφά, «queue» (Pline, XXI, lxi).

alopecia

alopecia. [Latin alopecia, adopted from Greek alwpeki a fox-mange, also baldness in man, formed on alwphc a fox.]

A medical term for baldness.