[E316] "Brank" = buckwheat, from a Latin word, brance, that occurs in Pliny lib. xviii. cap. 7, where it seems rather to mean a barley. "Galliæ quoque suum genus farris dedere, quod illic brance vocant, apud nos sandalam, nitidissimi grani." The word will be identical with blanc, white, Port. branco, and equivalent to wheat, which properly means "white."—Popular Names of British Plants, Dr. R. A. Prior, 1870, p. 28. Pancakes are made of it in Holland.—T.R.
[E317] Pidgeons, Rooks, and other Vermine, about that time begin to be scanted, and will certainly find them [peas] out, be they in never so by a Corner.—T.R. (May).
[E318] Fimble, or Female Hemp, so called, I suppose, because it falls to the Female's share to tew-taw it, that is, to dress it and to spin it, etc. The Fimble Hemp is that which is ripe soonest and fittest for spinning, and is not worth above half as much as the Carle with its seed.—T.R. "The male is called Charle Hempe, and Winter Hempe; the Female Barren Hempe and Sommer Hempe."—Gerard's Herball, p. 572. "Hemp was much cultivated here until the end of the great war with France. The Carl or male hemp was used for ropes, sackcloth, and other coarse manufactures: the fimble, or female hemp, was applied to making sheets and other domestic purposes."—Peacock's Gloss. of Manley, etc., E. D. Soc.
It is curious that the Karl or male hemp should be in reality the female plant, but other authors use the names in the same way. "The femell hempe ... beareth no sede."—Fitzherbert, "Boke of Husbandry." See also 55. 8. Gerard says the female hemp is "barren and without seede, contrarie to the nature of that sexe."—Note by Mr. J. Britten, F.L.S.
[E319] The fact of the Hop being one of the plants which twine from left to right had thus been observed as early as Tusser's time.—Note by Mr. J. Britten, F.L.S.
[E320] The tine tare ["a tare that tines or encloses and imprisons other plants, Vicia hirsuta."—Prior] is now seldom attempted to be raked out, for fear of greater mischief from the practice than from its neglect. The safest way is certainly to cut the tine near the root, but the operation is extremely tedious.—M.
[E321] "The Fawy riseth in Fawy moore in a verie quaue mire, on the side of an hill."—Harrison, ed. 1587, Bk. i. c. 12.
Cf. "The wal wagged and clef, and al the worlde quaved."
—Piers Plowman, ed. Skeat, B Text, Passus xviii. 61.
"Quave of a myre (quaue as of a myre), Labina. Quavyn, as myre, Tremo."—Prompt. Parv. Horman, in his chapter de re edificatoriâ, observes that "a quauery or a maris and unstable foundation must be holpe with great pylys of alder rammed downe, and with a frame of tymbre called a crossaundre (fistucâ)." In Caxton's Mirrour of the World, Part II. c. 22, it is said, "understande ye how the erthe quaueth and shaketh, that somme peple calle an erthe quaue, by cause they fele the erthe meue and quaue vnder their feet." "Quaue myre, foundriere crouliere."—Palsgrave. Forby gives Quavery-mavery = undecided, hesitating.—Way, Note in Prompt. Parv., s.v. Quave.
[E322] The meaning is, make your dunghill on the headland, especially where shaded with trees and bushes, as they will prevent the moisture from exhaling.—M.