Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable/Dog-rose

by Ebenezer Cobham Brewer

Dog-rose. Botanical name, Cynorrhodos—i.e. Greek kuno-rodon, dog-rose; so called because it was supposed to cure the bite of a mad dog (Rosa Canina, wild brier).

"A morsu vero [i.e. of a mad dog] unicum remedium oraculo quodam nuper repertum, radix sylvestris rosæ, quæ cynorrhodos appellatur."—Pliny: Natural History, viii. 63; xxv. 6.