A Grammatical Dictionary of Botanical Latin

vaccinus,-a,-um (adj.A): dun-color; “(obsol.) the color of a dun cow” (Lindley); pertaining or in reference to cows, of or from cows [> L. vacca,-ae (s.f.I) cow];

- fungus fimetarius in fimo vaccino (Mich.), a dungheap fungus, on cattle dung.

- Patria. In praeruptis frigidis nivosis montis Hoheneck et Kastelberg tract. Vogesorum ad terram in stercore vaccino (Mueller), Homeland. in frigid snowy cliffs of the mountain Hoheneck and Kastelberg, in the Vogesian region on soil on cow manure.

- [fungi] praeter stercus vaccinum et equinum, quae vulgaris incolit, aliquoties etiam in succerda, et insignis quidem statura ac luxurie, nobis visus (S&A), besides cow and horse dung, which it inhabits in common, seen at different times by us even on pig excrement, and certainly remarkable in stature and luxuriance.

dun (Eng. adj.): “a variable color averaging a nearly neutral slightly brownish dark gray and ranging from red to yellow in hue” (WIII); “marked by dullness and drabness, dark, gloomy, darkened (WIII) (of a horse) “exhibiting reduced hair pigmentation usu. accompanied by black points and dorsal stripe so that a basically black coat becomes pale grayish, a bay becomes yellowish, or a sorrel becomes pale and drab” (WIII).

Vaccinium L., presumably from vaccinus, of cows (Fernald 1950); the Latin word for the blueberry, whortleberry: Vaccinium myrtillus L. (Lewis & Short). Tricholoma vaccinum, a mushroom with a dry, reddish-brown cap and stipe whose surfaces are streaked with reddish brown hairs, resembling a red-brown cow.