sweetbrier (swetbri"er)

The eglantine, Rosa rubiginosa, a native of Europe and central Asia, introduced in the eastern United States. It is a tall-stemmed rose armed with strong and hooked, Fragrant; Sweetbrier (Rosa rubiginosa). also slender and straight, prickles, the leaves and flowers small, the former aromatic-scented, especially in cultivation, from copious resiniferous glands beneath and on the margins. Also sweetbriar. Trees I would have none in it, but some thickets made only of sweetbriar and honeysuckle. Bacon , Gardens (ed, 1887). Sweetbrier-sponge. Same as bedegar . sweeten (swē'tn), v. [ sweet + -en1.] I. in trans. To become sweet, in any sense. Set a rundlet of verjuice over against the sun in summer,. to see whether it will ripen and sweeten . Bacon, Nat. Hist., § 898. II. trans. 1. To make sweet to any of the senses. With fairest flowers... I'll sweeten thy sad grave. Sweeten your tea, and watch your toast. Shak., Cymbeline, iv. 2. 220. Swift, Panegyric to the Dean. IMG:content-2620.png:[blocks in formation] IMG:content-2621.png:[blocks in formation] Branch with Fruit of Sweet-fern ( Myrica asp len i folia). a, male catkins; b, scale of male flower; c, the fruit, with the eight bristles; d, part of the leaf, showing the nervation. which are fern-like in aspect, contain 9 or 10 per cent. of tannin. See Compt on i a.-2. The European sweet cicely, Myrrhis odorata, which has leaves di ected like those of a fern. [Prov. Eng.]