barometz

Noun

barometz (plural barometzes)

1. A purported zoophyte, half-animal and half-plant, said to grow in the form of a sheep.
   • Much wonder is made of the Boramez, that ſtrange plant-animall or vegetable Lamb of Tartary, which Wolves delight to feed on, which hath the ſhape of a Lamb, affordeth a bloudy juice upon breaking, and liveth while the plants be conſumed about it; and yet if all this be no more then the ſhape of a...1650, Thomas Browne, “Of Some Others”, in Pseudodoxia Epidemica: […], 2nd edition, London: […] A[braham] Miller, for Edw[ard] Dod and Nath[aniel] Ekins, […], →OCLC, 3rd book, page 152
   • Cradled in ſnow and fann'd by arctic air / Shines, gentle Barometz! thy golden hair; / Rooted in earth each cloven hood deſcends, / And round and round her flexile neck ſhe bends; / Crops the grey coral moſs, and hoary thyme, / Or laps with roſy tongue the melting rime; [...]1789, [Erasmus Darwin], “Canto I”, in The Botanic Garden; a Poem, in Two Parts. […], London: J[oseph] Johnson, […], published 1791, →OCLC, part II (The Loves of the Plants; 3rd edition), page 30...

   Synonyms:

   Scythian lamb, vegetable lamb, vegetable lamb of Tartary

2. A golden chicken fern or woolly fern (Cibotium barometz), the rhizomes of which are covered in furry brown hair; the legend (sense 1) is supposed to have arisen because, when inverted, the rhizomes with stalks growing out of them resemble lambs.
   • A singular vegetable production met with in the deserts, concerning which various fables have been related, is a kind of fern called the barometz, or Scythian lamb; the latter name being given to it from its woolly body, attached to the ground by a long slender stalk, affording a distant...1807, J[ohn] Aikin, “Chinese Tatary”, in Geographical Delineations, or A Compendious View of the Natural and Political State of All Parts of the Globe, Philadelphia, Pa.: Printed for F. Nichols, by...
   • [page 7] The Tartarian, or Scythian lamb, or borametz, is a plant, of which many miraculous tales are told. Travellers say that it exactly resembles a lamb, and that its pulp is similar to the flesh of lamb; and that it contains blood, &c.; but these accounts require confirmation. [...] [page 8...1826, Eliza P. Reid, “Part I. Rice, Licorice, Maize, or Indian Wheat, and Some Other Plants.”, in Historical and Literary Botany, […], volume III, Windsor, Berkshire: C. Andrews, […], →OCLC, pages 7...