Yer"ba (?), n. [Sp.] Bot.
An herb; a plant.
⇒ This word is much used in compound names of plants in Spanish; as, yerba buena [Sp., a good herb], a name applied in Spain to several kinds of mint (Mentha sativa, viridis, etc.), but in California universally applied to a common, sweet-scented labiate plant (Micromeria Douglasii).
Yerba dol osa. [Sp., herb of the she-bear.] A kind of buckthorn (Rhamnus Californica). -- Yerba mansa. [Sp., a mild herb, soft herb.] A plant (Anemopsis Californica) with a pungent, aromatic rootstock, used medicinally by the Mexicans and the Indians. -- Yerba reuma. [Cf. Sp. reuma rheum, rheumatism.] A low California undershrub (Frankenia grandifolia).
© Webster 1913.