EGLANTINE (E. Frisian, egeltiere; French, aiglantier), a name for the sweet-brier, Rosa rubiginosa, and for R. hιtea, another species of Lindley’s tribe of Iiosoe Rubiginos<r, and apparently the li. Eglanteria of Linnaeus. The signification of the word seems to be thorn-tree or thornbush, the first two syllables probably representing the Anglo-Saxon egla, egle, a prick or thorn, while the termination is the Dutch tere, taere, a tree (see Wedgwood, Diet. Eng. Etymology). Eglantine is frequently alluded to in the writings of English poets, from Chaucer downwards. Milton, in H Allegro, 1. 48, is thought by the term “twisted eglantine” to denote the honeysuckle.