ground-ivy
1. a. The herb ale-hoof, Nepeta Glechoma or Glechoma hederacea, a common labiate plant having bluish-purple flowers and kidney-shaped leaves. † b. The periwinkle, Vinca minor (obs. rare—1).
These plants have no obvious resemblance to ivy, but were classed by the older botanists as hedera on account of their creeping stems.
| [c 1350 Med. MS. 864 in Archæol. XXX. 376 Parwynke..Men calle it þe juy of grownde. Anoþer erbe is callyd soo, Þ{supt} we callyn tun-hoo.] c 1400 in Henslow Med. Wks. 14th C. (1899) 42 Take grounde-suylie and groundyuy and weybrede and stampe hem to-gedre. c 1450 ME. Med. Bk. (Heinrich) 200 Ȝyf þou mow not haue alle þese erbes, tak ground yuy alone. 1578 Lyte Dodoens iii. I. 389 Grounde Iuye hath many square tender stalkes growing foorth from a roote full of threddes. 1597 Gerard Herbal ii. ccc. 705 Hedera terrestris..in English ground Iuie, Alehoof [etc.]. 1616 Surfl. & Markh. Country Farme 207 Ground Iuie groweth likewise in a moist and shadowed place. 1676 Beal in Phil. Trans. XI. 587 Ale-hoof, or Ground-Ivy, famous for dispatching the maturation of Ale and Beer. 1712 tr. Pomet's Hist. Drugs I. 31 It runs upon the Ground, after the manner of Ground-Ivy. 1845 Lindley School Bot. (1862) 96 N[epeta] Glechoma (Ground Ivy)... A popular country remedy for colds. |
| attrib. 1734 Mrs. Delany in Life & Corr. (1861) I. 453 Your cough not gone yet?—I beg you will drink asses milk and ground ivy tea. |
† 2. The barren trailing ivy (
Hedera Helix).
| 1597 Gerard Herbal ii. ccci. 708 Creeping or barren Iuie is called..in English ground Iuie. |
† 3. The ground-pine (
Ajuga Chamæpitys).
Obs. [
App. ivy is here a corruption of
ive: see
herb]
| 1640 Parkinson Theat. Bot. 284 It [Chamæpitys] is called in English Ground Pine, and Ground Ivie after the Latine word Iva. |