scurvy-grass

scurvy-grass (countable and uncountable, plural scurvy-grasses)

1. Any of several European plants, of the genus Cochlearia, formerly believed useful in treating scurvy.

   Synonym: spoonwort

   • 1658, Sir Thomas Browne, The Garden of Cyrus, Folio Society, published 2007, page 205:

     The seeds of Scurvy-grasse growing in waterpots have been fruitfull in the Land

   • 1665, Robert Hooke, Micrographia, section XXXI:

     [T]he seed of Scurvy-grass very much resembles the make of a Concha Venerea, a kind of Purcelane Schell […].

   • 1773, James Cook, The Journals, Second Voyage, 19 May:

     Knowing that sellery and scurvey grass and other vegetables were to be found in this sound […] , I went myself at day light in the morn in search of some and returned by breakfast with a boat load […] .