Klarinet Archive - Posting 000558.txt from 1997/04

From: "R Tennenbaum" <rtenn@-----.com>
Subj: RE: What's Dutch rush look like?
Date: Fri, 18 Apr 1997 10:47:04 -0400

>Does anyone know the scientific name for Dutch Rush?

>From my Oxford English Dictionary CD-Rom (what a fabulous thing):

Dutch rushes, a species of Equisetum or Horse-tail used
for polishing; shave-grass.

Here are some text-citations, beside their dates:

1548 Turner Names Herbes A vj b, Albucum..groweth in gardines in
Anwerp, it maye be named in englishe whyte affodil, or duche
daffodil.
1640 Parkinson Theat. Bot. 1156 Sweet Dutch grasse with a tufted
head.
1731@-----. Kalendar 79 Imperial, Cos and Brown Dutch
Lettuces.
Ibid., The large-rooted Dutch Parsley.
1829 Loudon Encycl. Plants 208 note, Ulmus suberosa, often called the
Dutch Elm.
Ibid. 891 note, Equisetum hyemale is imported from Holland under the
name of Dutch rushes.
1849 Carpenter Veg. Phys. 757 Minute particles of silex or flinty
substance, whose presence renders one species,..the Dutch Rush ,
valued for its use in polishing furniture and pewter utensils.