| 释义 |
silk grass Bot.
Also silk-grass.
[f. silk n. + grass n.1]
1. a. One or other of various species of lustrous grasses native to America and the West Indies, esp. Bromelia or Nidularium Karatas; also, the fibrous leaves produced by these.
1620Observ. Silkwormes D j, Silke grasse to bee vsed for Cordage, sixe-pence the pound. 1699Wafer Voy. 94 They have a Plant also which is of good use to them, call'd by us Silk-grass, tho' 'tis indeed a kind of Flag. 1703Lond. Gaz. No. 3898/3 Goods out of the Mary Man of War from Vigo, consisting of..Coppras, Silk Grass, &c. 1771Smollett Humph. Cl. 13 July, He..made her a present of a purse of silk-grass. 1807P. Gass Jrnl. 184 A number of the Chinook Indians came to the fort with hats..made of the cedar bark and silk grass. 1827Roberts Voy. Centr. Amer. 56 Large bags made of silk grass. 1864Grisebach Flora Brit. W. Ind. 787/2.
attrib.1699Wafer Voy. 95 The Spanish Women make Stockins of it, which are call'd Silk-grass Stockins.
b. The name of various species of aloe, agave, or yucca, or of the fibre derived from these.
1753Chambers' Cycl. Suppl. App., Silk-grass, a name used for two very different genuses of plants, the aloe and dog's bane. 1847Webster (citing Farm. Encycl.), Silk-grass, a filamentous plant of the genus Yucca. 1858Simmonds Dict. Trade, Silk-grass, a name for the fine fibres of the Agave vivipara, and of A. zuccæfolia. 1859Bartlett Dict. Amer. (ed. 2) s.v. Bear-grass, Bear-Grass (Yucca-filamentosa). Sometimes called Silk Grass, from the fibres which appear on the edges of the leaves. It is not a grass.
attrib.1769E. Bancroft Nat. Hist. Guiana 48 The Silk Grass Plant nearly resembles the American Aloes.
†2.
a. Dog's-bane (Apocynum). Obs. rare.
1670Phil. Trans. V. 1152 In the same Box are Pods of a Vegetable, we call Silk-grass, which are full of a kind of most fine down-like Cotton-wool. 1753Chambers' Cycl. Suppl. App.
†b. Cotton-grass. Obs.—1
1727in Gentl. Mag. (1747) XVII. 23/2 A plant named silk or cotton grass from its white tuff on the top resembling the finest cotton wool.
3. The grass Oryzopsis cuspidata of the western United States, the glumes of which bear long silky hairs; also Stipa comata of the same region.
1891in Cent. Dict. |