130 The Scottish Naturalist. 



Rannoch and Breadalbane : Beatha cluasach, the many (droop- 

 ing) ear birch. (Stuart.) 



B. nana — Dwarf birch. Gaelic : beatha beag (Fergusson), the 

 small birch. 



Castanea vesca — Common chestnut. Gaelic and Irish : chra- 

 obh geanm chno. 



"No na craobha geanm-clino cosmhuil r'a gheugaibh. " — Ezekiel xxxi. 8. 

 Nor the chestnut-tree like his branches. 



Geanm or geann, natural love, pure love, such as exists between 

 relatives, — the tree of chaste love, and cno, a nut. The Celts 

 evidently credited this tree with the same virtues as the chaste 

 tree, Vitex agnus castas (Greek, ayvos ; and Latin, castas, 

 chaste). Hence the Athenian matrons, in the sacred rites of 

 Ceres, used to strew their couches with its leaves. Castanea is 

 said to be derived from Castana, a town in Pontus, and that 

 the tree is so called because of its abundance there. But the 

 town Castana (Greek, Kdaravov) was probably so called on 

 account of the virtues of its female population. If so, the Eng- 

 lish name chestnut would mean chaste-nut, as it is in the Gaelic. 

 Welsh : castan (from Latin, caste), chastely, modestly. The 

 chestnut-tree of Scripture is now supposed to be Platanus oric?i- 

 talis, the Chenar plane-tree. 



[iEsculus hippocastanum — The horse - chestnut. Gaelic : 

 geanm chno feadhaich (Fergusson). Belongs to the order Acei'- 

 aceaz. Was introduced to Scotland in 1709.] 



Populus alba — Poplar. Gaelic : pobhuill. Irish: poibleag. 

 German : pappel. Welsh and Armoric : poll. Latin : populus. 

 This name has an Asiatic origin, and became a common name 

 to all Europe through the Aryan family from the East. 1 Pictet 

 explains it thus : " Ce nom est sans doute une reduplication de 

 la racine Sanskrit put, magnum, altum." Put put, great, great, or 

 big, big, as in the Hebrew construction, very big. We still say 

 in Gaelic mbr mbr, big, big, for very big. Put put is the Persian 

 for poplar, and pullali for salix. This tree is quite common in 

 Persia and Asia Minor, hence it was as well known there as in 

 Europe. The name has become associated with populus, the 

 people, by the fact that the streets of ancient Rome were deco- 

 rated with rows of this tree, whence it was called Arbor populi. 

 Again, it is asserted that the name is derived from the constant 



1 See Canon Bourke's work on ' The Aryan Origin of the Gaelic Race 

 anil Language. ' London: Longman. 



