82 The Scottish Naturalist. 



mel or mal (Greek, jxeXov, an apple), and buc, size, bulk. Ac- 

 cording to Brockie, " mealbhucain (plural), round fruit covered 

 with warts or pimples." Mileog, a small melon. 



URTICACEyE. 



Urtica — A word formed from Latin : uro, to burn. 



" -. . — Nettle (Anglo-Saxon, na'dl, a needle). Gaelic 



and Irish : feanntag, neandog? deanntag, iontag, iuntag (from 

 feanta, flayed, pierced, pinched—/^;/;/, to flay, on account of its 

 blistering effects on the skm ; ang, a sting; iongna, nails). 

 " Sealbhaichidh an t' ionntagach." — Hosea. 

 The nettles shall possess them. 



To this day it is boiled in the Highlands and in Ireland by 



the country people in the spring-time. Till tea became the 



fashion, nettles were boiled in meal, and made capital food. 



Caol-fail — caol, slender ; fal, spite, malice. 



Cannabis sativa — Hemp. Gaelic and Irish : caineab, the 



same as cannabis, and said to be originally derived from Celtic, 



can, white ; but the plant has been known to the Arabs from 



time immemorial under the name of quaneb. Corcach, hemp. 



"Buill do' n chaol chbrcaidJt."—M 'Donald. 



Tackling of hempen ropes. 



Welsh : cy u arch. 



( To be continued. ) 



NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS. 



Prehistoric Europe: a Geological Sketch. By James Geikie. LL.D. , 

 F.R.S., of H.M. Geological Survey of Scotland. 8vo.,pp. 592. London : 

 Stanford. 



The antiquity of our race has of late years formed a fruitful subject of dis- 

 cussion among archaeologists and geologists ; and indeed there is no chapter 

 in the history of the world which is of such general interest and importance 

 as that which a study of the Pleistocene and Recent deposits has revealed. It 

 is now admitted that the date of the advent of man in Europe is vastly more 

 remote than even the most liberal of the old chronologies would allow. Great 

 changes in the relative position of land and sea, and widespread climatic 

 vicissitudes, have taken place since the earliest known occupation of our area 



1 " Neandog, the common name for it in Ireland. In feminine nouns, the 

 first consonant (letter) after the article an (the) is softened in sound. ' An 

 feanntag' — 'f when affected loses its sound, and ' N ' is sounded instead : 

 ' N (f)eantog.'"— Canon Bourke. 



