5. Sprightly or mercurial quality; spirit; mutability; fickleness. [Obs.]
He was so full of mercury that he could not fix long in any friendship, or to any design.
Bp. Burnet. 6. (Bot.) A plant (Mercurialis annua), of the Spurge family, the leaves of which are sometimes used for
spinach, in Europe.
The name is also applied, in the United States, to certain climbing plants, some of which are poisonous
to the skin, esp. to the Rhus Toxicodendron, or poison ivy.
Dog's mercury (Bot.), Mercurialis perennis, a perennial plant differing from M. annua by having the
leaves sessile. — English mercury (Bot.), a kind of goosefoot formerly used as a pot herb; - - called
Good King Henry. — Horn mercury (Min.), a mineral chloride of mercury, having a semitranslucent,
hornlike appearance.
Mercury
(Mer"cu*ry), v. t. To wash with a preparation of mercury. [Obs.] B. Jonson.
