Bot. [Of uncertain etymology: suggestions are that it is the same word as prec., or of the same derivation.
(Skinner’s guess that it might be a corruption of *Stœchas sidonius labors under the fatal objection that no such name is known.)]
1. The plant Lavandula Stœchas, French lavender.
1578. Lyte, Dodoens, II. lxxxvii. 266. It is called … in English French Lauender, Cassidonie, and of some Lauender gentle.
1597. Gerard, Herbal (1633), 586 (L.). In English … Cassidonie; and some simple people, imitating the same name do call it ‘Cast me down.’
1629. Parkinson, Kitchen Gard., I. vii. 471. Cassidonie is a small kinde of Lauender, but differing both in forme & qualitie.
1713. J. Petiver, in Phil. Trans., XXVIII. 43. Cassidony or French Lavander.
1753. in Chambers, Cycl. Supp. App., and in mod. Dicts.
2. ‘Mountain or Golden Cassidony: names used for the Gnaphalium of authors,’ Chambers, Cycl. Supp. App. (Gnaphalium Stæchas Treas. Bot.)
