Adjacent Words

bog myrtle definitions

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WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: perennial plant of Europe and America having racemes of white or purplish flowers and intensely bitter trifoliate leaves; often rooting at water margin and spreading across the surface [syn: water shamrock, buckbean, bogbean, bog myrtle, marsh trefoil, Menyanthes trifoliata]

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Myrtle Myr"tle (m[~e]r"t'l), n. [F. myrtil bilberry, prop., a little myrtle, from myrte myrtle, L. myrtus, murtus, Gr. my`rtos; cf. Per. m[=u]rd.] (Bot.) A species of the genus Myrtus, especially Myrtus communis. The common myrtle has a shrubby, upright stem, eight or ten feet high. Its branches form a close, full head, thickly covered with ovate or lanceolate evergreen leaves. It has solitary axillary white or rosy flowers, followed by black several-seeded berries. The ancients considered it sacred to Venus. The flowers, leaves, and berries are used variously in perfumery and as a condiment, and the beautifully mottled wood is used in turning. Note: The name is also popularly but wrongly applied in America to two creeping plants, the blue-flowered periwinkle and the yellow-flowered moneywort. In the West Indies several myrtaceous shrubs are called myrtle. Bog myrtle, the sweet gale. Crape myrtle. See under Crape. Myrtle warbler (Zo["o]l.), a North American wood warbler (Dendroica coronata); -- called also myrtle bird, yellow-rumped warbler, and yellow-crowned warbler. Myrtle wax. (Bot.) See Bayberry tallow, under Bayberry. Sand myrtle, a low, branching evergreen shrub (Leiophyllum buxifolium), growing in New Jersey and southward. Wax myrtle (Myrica cerifera). See Bayberry.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Bog Bog, n. [Ir. & Gael. bog soft, tender, moist: cf. Ir. bogach bog, moor, marsh, Gael. bogan quagmire.] 1. A quagmire filled with decayed moss and other vegetable matter; wet spongy ground where a heavy body is apt to sink; a marsh; a morass. Appalled with thoughts of bog, or caverned pit, Of treacherous earth, subsiding where they tread. --R. Jago. 2. A little elevated spot or clump of earth, roots, and grass, in a marsh or swamp. [Local, U. S.] Bog bean. See Buck bean. Bog bumper (bump, to make a loud noise), Bog blitter, Bog bluiter, Bog jumper, the bittern. [Prov.] Bog butter, a hydrocarbon of butterlike consistence found in the peat bogs of Ireland. Bog earth (Min.), a soil composed for the most part of silex and partially decomposed vegetable fiber. --P. Cyc. Bog moss. (Bot.) Same as Sphagnum. Bog myrtle (Bot.), the sweet gale. Bog ore. (Min.) (a) An ore of iron found in boggy or swampy land; a variety of brown iron ore, or limonite. (b) Bog manganese, the hydrated peroxide of manganese. Bog rush (Bot.), any rush growing in bogs; saw grass. Bog spavin. See under Spavin.