Briar-root, a fine hard wood obtained from the roots of a species of very large heath (Erica arborea) which grows in the Pyrenees, in Corsica, and in Algeria. It is largely used for tobacco-pipes. The name is a corruption of the French bryère ('heath'), and has nothing to do with briar.
Briar-root
Chambers's Encyclopaedia, Volume 2: Beaugency to Cataract, p. 432
Source scan(s): p. 0443