A name applied to various grasses and grass-like plants growing in the water; also dial. (Warw.) to ‘various species of Equisetum’ (Britten & Holland).
The application to the pond-weed (Potamogeton) in quot. 1585 may possibly be an error.
1585. Higins, Junius’ Nomencl., 134/1. Potamogeton, fontinalis,… pondweede or wotergrasse.
1597. Gerarde, Herbal, I. x. 12. Gramen aquaticum. Water grasse, or as we may terme it, Water burre grasse. Ibid., xi. 13. The place and time in which they growe, differeth not from the other Water grasses.
1765. Museum Rust., IV. 128. Our flote fescue is a water-grass, and cannot be made hay of, at least without being dragged from out of the water.
1848. Schomburgk, Hist. Barbados, 585. Panicum spectabile…. Scotch Grass. Water Grass.
1856. Olmsted, Slave States, 69. Broad, silent pools, around the edges of which remained a skirt of ice, held there by bushes and long, broken water-grasses.
1875. Melliss, St. Helena, 342. J[uncus] capensis, Thunb.—Spreading Water Grass, or Rush.
1869. Blackmore, Lorna D., vii. Blades of last year’s water-grass, trembling in the quiet places.
¶ b. Anglo-Irish perversion of WATER-CRESS.
1726. Threlkeld, Synopsis Stirp. Hibern., Nasturtium aquaticum supinum,… Water-cresses…. It is called about the Street by the abusive Name of Water-grass.
1880. Antrim & Down Gloss.
