2 68 The Scottish Naturalist. 



Soft month of the spotted bossy apples ! 

 Producing pears, plums, and haws, ■ 

 Abounding in berries, wax, 

 Honey, wasps, and gooseberries. 



Uath or hiiath — the ancient Gaelic and Irish name — has 

 several significations ; but the root seems to be hii (Celtic), that 

 which pervades. Welsh : Jiuad, that which smells or has a 

 scent (huadgu, a hound that scents). "The name hawthorn 

 is supposed to be a corruption of the Dutch hoeg, a hedge-thorn. 

 Although the fruit is generally called a haw, that name is derived 

 from the tree which produces it, and does not, as is frequently 

 supposed, take its name from the fruit it bears." — Jones. Haw- 

 thorn may only be a corruption of huad-draen, scented thorns. 

 The badge of the Clan Ogilvie. 



Pyrus (from peren, Celtic for pear). Latin : pyrum. Armoric : 

 per. Welsh : perefi. French : poire. 



Pyrus communis — Wild pear. Gaelic : c7'aobh pheurain fiad- 

 hain {peiir, the fruit), the wild pear-tree. 



Pyrus malus — " Mel or w^/, Celtic for the apple, which the 

 Greeks have rendered ym-^Xov, and the Latins inalus.^' — Don. 

 Welsh: afal. Anglo-Saxon: Kpl. Norse: apal, apple. Gaelic: 

 ubhal; craobh ubhal jiadhain^ the wild apple-tree. 



*' Do mheasan milis cubhraidh 

 Nan ubhlan 's 'nam/^«r." — M 'Donald. 



Thy sweet and fragrant fruits. 

 Apples and pears. 



The old form of the word was adhiil or abhul. The culture of 



apples must have been largely carried on in the Highlands in 



olden times, as appears from lines by Merlin, who flourished in 

 A.D. 470, of which the following is a translation: — 



** Sweet apple-tree loaded with the sweetest fruit, growing in the lonely 

 wilds of the woods of Celyddon (Dunkcld), all seek thee for the sake of tliy 

 ])roduce, but in vain ; until Cadwaldr comes to the conference of the ford of 

 Khcon, and Conan advances to oppose the Saxons in their careeh" 



This poem is given under the name of Afal/anau, or Orchard, 

 by which Merlin perhaps means Athol — i.e., Abhal or Adhul — 

 which is believed by etymologists to acquire its name from its 

 fruitfulness in apple-trees. Goirtcag (from goirt, bitter), the 

 sour or bitter one (the crab -apple). Cuairtagan (the fruit); 

 cuairt, round, the round ies. Irish : cucirt. 



