bedstraw
(ˈbɛdstrɔː)
[see straw.]
† 1. The straw which (covered by a sheet) formerly constituted the bedding in an ordinary bed, and which still serves in rural districts instead of a palliasse, or under-bed. Obs. (See also straw.)
| c 1386 Chaucer Merch. T. 539 O perilous fyr that in the bedstraw bredeth. 1388 Wyclif Ps. vi. 7 Y schal moiste my bedstre [1382 bedding] with my teeris. 1483 Cath. Angl. 25 Bedstrey, stratum, stratorium. 1578 Lyte Dodoens 402 Ferne put into the bedstrowe, driueth away the stinking punayses. 1626 Bacon Sylva §696 The Chamber and Bedstraw, kept close, and not Aired. a 1637 Dekker Witch Edm. iv. ii. Wks. 1873 IV. 413 More fire i' th' Bed-straw? |
2. Name applied to a genus of plants (Galium, family Rubiaceæ) containing many species, with slender ascending stems, whorled or cruciate leaves, and small clustered flowers. One of these (G. verum) has long borne the legendary name of Our Lady's Bedstraw (cf. the similarly allusive Our Lady's Garters, Mantle, Slippers, Smock, etc., etc.); whence recent writers have somewhat irrationally taken ‘Bedstraw’ as an English book-name for the whole genus making ‘Our Lady's B.’ a species.
| 1527 Andrew Brunswyke's Distyll. Waters O iv, Our lady bedstrawe, serpillum in latyn. 1543 Traheron Vigo's Chirurg. v. v. 169 b, Decoction of the herbe called our ladyes bedstrawe. 1597 Gerard Herbal ii. cccclxix. 1126 There be divers sorts of the herbes called Ladies Bedstraw or Cheese renning. 1784 Twamley Dairying 119 The Runnet Plant..English Names, are yellow ladies bedstraw or Cheese renning, or petty muguet. 1820 Sowerby Eng. Bot. s.v., Rough Marsh Bed straw. 1854 S. Thomson Wild Fl. i. 68 In the bedstraws..we count four stamens. |