star head

Bot.: The genus Asterocephalus. star-hyacinth, s. star-jelly, s. Bot.: Nostoc commune , a trembling, gelatinous plant which springs up after rain. Called also Star-shoot, Star-shot, and Star-slough, from the old folk-superstition that it was part of the remains of a fallen star. (See extract for an obsolete hypothesis as to this plant.) "The gelatinous substance known by the name of star . shot, or star- jelly , owes its origin to this bird, or some of the kind; being nothing but the half-digested remains of earthworms, on which these birds feed, and often dis charge from their stomachs." -Pennant: British Zoology, vol. ii., p. 538.