toad flower (todflou"er)

See Stapelia. toadhead (tod'hed), n. The American golden plover, Charadrius dominicus. [Cape Cod, Mas sachusetts.] eye.] In mineral., a variety of wood-tin. toad's-hat (tōdz'hat), n. [ A most toad - spotted traitor. Shak . , Lear, v. 3. 138. toadstone1 (tōd's ton), n. [ toad + stone .] Any one of various natural or artificial objects resembling a toad in form or color, or which were believed to have been formed within the body of that animal, and which for many centuries, and over a large part of Europe, were held in ⚫ high regard, and preserved with the greatest care. The earliest reference to objects of this kind is that of Pliny, who, under the name of "batrachites," described various stones which were said by him to resemble the frog in color, although he does not speak of their being po e ed of any special virtues. This is the only reference to the toadstone to be found in cla ic authors; but much later on the names "crapodinus" and "bufonites" are found in various learned works written in Latin; while the word "crapaudine" appears in French as early as the fourteenth century, and "krottenstein," "cradenstein," and "krötenstein" not much later in German. Al bertus Magnus and others also gave the name of "borax" to a stone supposed by them to be found in the head of the toad. This latter was the most common form of belief in erally thought that it was endowed with special virtues regard to the origin of the toadstone, and it was very gen if the animal could be made to surrender it voluntarily. Toadstones were preserved at the shrines of saints, worn their as amulets, owners or as set charms, in rings, or antidotes or in other to ways poison, treasured or as havby ing special therapeutic qualities, or simply as natural curiosities. Some of these objects were bits of rock, or of jasper, or of other semi-precious or perhaps really precious stones, toad-like in color or shape; others were fo ils of various kinds, such as brachiopods, fragments of crinoids, teeth of fo il fish, etc.; in regard to many of them, how ever, no reasonable gue can be made as to their real nature. Shakspere refers to the toadstone in the lines: Sweet are the uses of adversity, Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous, Wears yet a precious jewel in his head. (As you Like it, ii. 1. 12-14.) If he would send his eyes, I would undertake To carry 'em to the jeweller; they would off For pretty toadstones. Shirley, The Brothers, ii. 1. toadstone2 (tōd's ton), n. [An accom. form, simulating toadstone1, of G. todtes geste in, lit. 'dead (i. e. unproductive) rock.'] In geol., a volcanic rock varying in texture from a soft crumbly ash to a hard close-grained greenstone, several beds of which occur in the magnesian limestone of the lead-mining district of Derby shire. The toadstone has the position of an interbedded rock, is irregular in thickne , and traversed by numerous veins and faults. It much resembles the so-called whinsill of Yorkshire, Durham, and North umber land. Also called toadrock.