The Scottish Naturalist. 1 3 1 



movement of the leaves, which are in perpetual motion, like the 

 populace — " fickle, like the multitude, that are accursed." 



P. tremula — Aspen. Gaelic and Irish : critheann, trembling. 



" Mar chritheach san t' sine." — Ull. 

 Like an aspen in the blast. 



With the slightest breeze the leaves tremble, the poetic belief 

 being that the wood of the Cross was made from this tree, 

 and that ever since the leaves cannot cease from trembling. 

 Eadhadh. Welsh : aethnen (aethiad, smarting). The mulberry 

 tree of Scripture is supposed to be the aspen (Balfour), and in 

 Gaelic is rendered craobh nan smew: (See Morns and Rubus 

 fruticosus. ) 



" Agus an uair a chluineas tu fuim siubhail an mullach chraobh nan smeur, 

 an sin gluaisidh tu thu fein." — 2 Samuel v. 24. 



And when thou hearest a sound of marching on the tops of the mulberry 

 trees, that then thou shalt bestir thyself. 



The badge of Clan Fergusson. 



Salix — According to Pictet, from Sanskrit, sala, a tree. 



" II a passe au suale dans plusieurs langues 

 . . . Ces noms derivent de sala. " 



Gaelic and Irish : seileach, saileog, sal, suit. Cognate with Latin : 

 salix. Fin.: salawa. Anglo-Saxon : salig, salh, from which 

 sallow (white willow) is derived. Welsh : helyg, willow. (See 

 S. viniinalis.) 



S. viminalis — Osier willow ; cooper's willow. Gaelic and 

 Irish : fineatnhain (from fin, vine ; and niuin, a neck), a long 

 twig — a name also applied to the vine. 1 Vimen in Latin means 

 also a pliant twig, a switch osier. One of the seven hills of 

 Rome (Viminalis Collis) was so named from a willow copse 

 that stood there ; and Jupiter, who was worshipped among these 

 willows, was called "Viminius;" and his priests, and those of 

 Mars, were called Salii for the same reason. The worship was 

 frequently of a sensual character, and thus the willow has be- 

 come associated with lust, filthiness. Priapus was sarcastically 

 called " Salacissimus Jupiter," hence salax, lustful, salacious ; 

 and in Gaelic, salach (from sal) ; German, sal, polluted, defiled. 

 The osier is also called bunsag, bun, a stump, a stock. 

 Afaothan, from maoth, smooth, tender. Gall sheileach, the 

 foreign willow. 



1 " 



Finemhain fa m' chomhair " (in Genesis) — a vine opposite to me. 



