A Grammatical Dictionary of Botanical Latin

Piscis,-is (s.m.III), abl. sg. pisce, nom. & acc. pl. pisces, gen. pl. piscium: fish.

NOTE: as an i-stem noun the genitive plural is piscium.

- odor piscium, the odor of fishes.

- stabulum piscium (= gen.pl. piscis,-is (s.m.III), a fish), a fish-pond.

- aspectu sceleti piscis, with the appearance of the skeleton of a fish.

- Confervæ vilissimæ filtris aptæ sunt, quædam a piscibus & avibus maritimis devorantur, aliæ nidum præbent & foetificationi conchyliorum aliorumque insectorum aquaticorum inserviunt, sicuti terrestres Musci domicilia insectis terrestribus dant & Hypna sericea avium minorum nidis struendis apta sunt (Dill.), Conferva most abundant suited for [felts or filters], certain ones eagerly consumed by fishes and sea birds, others provide for a nest and are serviceable for the spawning of shellfish, and of different aquatic insects, just as terrestrial mosses supply the dwelling places for terrestrial insects, and Hypna sericea are suitable for the nest construction of smaller birds.

- Eadem Hypna apta sunt purgandis lumbricis in usum Pharmacopoeorum & Piscatorum, præsertim species 45.46.47. Alii usus, tempore innotescent (Dill.), these very same Hypna are suitable for expelling intestinal worms in the usage of the pharmacists and fishermen .... Other applications will become clear in time.

- [Conferva marina lubrica & mucosa. The jelly Sea Conferva [the sea-Conferva that is slippery and slimy]

Ob substantiam mollem & gelatinosam alimoniam præbet Laris, quos circa illam exspatiari & avide ea vesci observavi, & procul dubio a piscibus etiam devoratur (Dill.), because of the soft and gelatinous substance, it provides the food [i.e. sustenance] for sea-gulls, which I had observed spreading out around it and avidly eating it; doubtless it is also devoured by fishes.

- Lichen saxatilis latifolius viridis, corium carchariæ piscis referens, ad foliorum apices exanthemata sua condens (Dill.), a lichen growing on stones, wide-leaved, green, resembling the skin of the fish carchar [i.e. perhaps a kind of small shark (dogfish); sharkskin] forming at the apices of the leaves its own pustules. [= Lichen verrucosus].

[shagreen, sharkskin: “the rough skin of various sharks and rays when covered with small close-set tubercles” (WIII).

- [Calamaria folio longiore & graciliore. The long and slender-leaf'd Quillwort: Gwair Merlym Cambr. i. e. Merllyn's Grass [Calamaria with the leaf longer and more slender; in England, confined to mountain lakes where it is abundant “clothing the bottoms of the deep and still waters with a perennial verdure” S. Gray, History of British Ferns][= Calamaria,-ae (s.f.I) (Isoetaceae; Pteridophytes)]:

Referunt monticolæ pisces, quos habent optimi generis, utraque hac herba vesci & armenta, si projectam inveniant, avide devorare & ea pinguescere (Dill.), mountain fishes recover them, which they consider of the best kind to eat, both these [i.e. fishes] to feed upon this herb, as well as herds [i.e. of cattle], if they encounter it spread out [i.e. raked up and thrown down on the grass], to eagerly devour it and grow fat.

NOTE: “Dillenius learned from the mountaineers of the neighbourhood, that fish feed on the Isoetes; and that when detached from its hold in the soil and cast on shore, the cattle devour it greedily and grow fat on it. The passage is rather obscurely worded, and its meaning seems to have been mistaken by compilers, who make it fatten the fish [i.e. ‘schools’ of fish], and leave the bullocks out of the question” (S.Gray, History of British Ferns).