down in the mouth

Reader's Digest ２月号の特集はWORLD'S BEST MEDICINEで、目次に次ぎの紹介文がありました。
Feeling down in the mouth? We prescribe our ten-page laughter special to bring your smile back.
"Feeling down in the mouth?" はこの後の文に "bring your smile back" とあるので、「落ち込んでいるの？」と言う様な意味と推測できますが、慣用句の様なので辞書で確認します。
・Collins Dictionary: in low spirits: Even Green appeared down in the mouth as he strolled in, flanked by four minders.
・Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary: dejected: after a disastrous date like that, anyone would be down in the mouth
・Vocabulary.com: filled with melancholy and despondency: "There's no need for you to be so down in the mouth," he concluded.

macadam

明治の建築家、Josiah Conderの書いた "Landscape Gardening in Japan" のGarden Riversの章の抜粋です。
Such dry river-beds are moreover crossed by rusticated bridges of planks or logs, in the same way as if actual water existed. Many examples may be seen in which the flowing current is actually represented as distinct from the gravelled bed, black stones, broken like macadam, being used for the water, and ordinary white pebbles and boulders for the exposed portions of the beds.
"macadam" が気になる単語です。早速辞書を見ます。
・Vocabulary.com: broken stone used in macadamized roadways:
これだと "macadam" の説明に "macadam" が使われているので変に感じますが、　"macadam" には次ぎの意味もあります。
・a paved surface having compressed layers of broken rocks held together with tar: I remember footsteps painted on the macadam telling us where to go.
・Oxford English Dictionary: Broken stone of even size used in successively compacted layers for surfacing roads and paths, and typically bound with tar or bitumen.
Origin: early 19th century: named after John L. McAdam (1756?1836), the British surveyor who advocated using this material.
語源についてはMerriam-Webster's Online Dictionaryにもっと詳しい説明が次ぎのように書かれていました。
Form of pavement invented by John McAdam. McAdam's road cross-section consisted of a compacted subgrade of crushed granite or greenstone designed to support the load, covered by a surface of light stone to absorb wear and tear and shed water to the drainage ditches. In modern macadam construction, crushed stone or gravel is placed on the compacted base course and bound together with asphalt cement or hot tar. A third layer to fill the spaces is then added and rolled. Cement-sand slurry is sometimes used as the binder.

quince, pyrus, lespedeza, and kerria

"Landscape Gardening in Japan" を読んでいますが当然のことながら色々な植物の名前が出てきます。学名はともかく良く知っている植物の名前ぐらいは覚えたい。　今日は次ぎの文に出てきた４種類の植物名をなんとか覚えたい。
Other parts of these extensive grounds are laid out with plantations of cryptomeria, spruce, and pine, and groves of blossoming trees and shrubs, such as plum, cherry, peach, quince, pyrus, lespedeza, and kerria.
知らなかった英語の植物名は "quince"、"pyrus"、"lespedeza"、"kerria" です。まず英英辞書で何の植物か見てみます。
"quince": The quince is a small deciduous tree that bears a pome fruit, similar in appearance to a pear, and bright golden-yellow when mature.
これはカリンの様ですが、別の辞書を見ると "Japanese quince" と "Chinese quince" があって、前者はボケ、後者はカリンとなっていました。
"pyrus": The pear is any of several tree and shrub species of genus Pyrus in the family Rosaceae.
これは梨属を示す学名の様です。
"lespedeza": Lespedeza is a genus of some 40 species (including nothospecies) of flowering plants in the pea family (Fabaceae), commonly known as bush clovers or (particularly East Asian species) Japanese clovers (hagi).
"bush clover" なら通訳ガイドの受験の時に覚えています。
"kerria": Kerria japonica, commonly named Kerria or Japanese Yellow Rose (the sole species in the genus Kerria), is a deciduous shrub in the rose family Rosaceae, native to eastern Asia, in China, Japan and Korea.

vermiculated

昨日は出勤前の早朝に千鳥が淵の桜を見に行きました。この十年程恒例の花見になっています。今年は東京でも大雪が降ったので桜も多くの枝が折れたようで、最近に切り落とされた痕の分かる木が多く見られました。<BR>
さて、本題に移ります。"Landscape Gardening in Japan" の庭石の説明の章を読んでいます。<BR>
Some of these coloured limestones posses white veins of more compare formation than the general mass, which, having better resisted the wearing action, stand up in ridges and produce a grain somewhat resembling that of weather-worn timber. Such curious and <B>vermiculated</B> effects are specially sought after.<BR>
"<B>vermiculated</B>" が分かりません。早速辞書で調べます。<BR>
・Oxford English Dictionary: Architecture Carved or molded with shallow wavy grooves resembling the tracks of worms.<BR>
・WordNet: decorated with wormlike tracery or markings ("Vermicular (or <B>vermiculated</B>) stonework")<BR>
・Dictionary.com: worm-eaten, or appearing as if worm-eaten.<BR>
なんだかパスタの "vermicelli" (long, slender pasta, similar to spaghetti, only thinner.) を思い起こさせますが、Wikitionaryの "vermicelli" の語源として次ぎの説明がありました。
From Italian plural of Italian vermicello (“little worm”), from verme (“worm”), from Latin vermis + -cello (“diminutive suffix”)<BR>
今度スパゲティを食べる時にミミズを思い起こしてしまうかも。<BR>