agnus Scythicus

[Lat. = Scythian lamb.] Bot.: A name given to the rhizome of a fern, Dicks on i a Barometz, which grows in Eastern IMG:content-0286.png:[graphic][merged small][subsumed][subsumed][merged small][merged small][merged small] Central Asia. The stem, which is covered with brown woolly scales, somewhat resembles the body of a lamb, as do the leaf-stalks its legs. ǎg-nus căs-tus, s. (Lat. = the chaste tree.] Agnus here is only a transliteration of the Greek name of the tree, and has no connection with agnus a lamb.] Bot.: Vitex agnus - cast us , an aromatic shrub, with digitate leaves and spikes of purplish blue flowers. [VITEX.] "Of laurel some, of woodbine many more, And wreathes of agnus cast us others bore." Dryden: Flower & Leaf, 178. 126