174 The Scottish Naturalist. 



amongst Jews and Christians, the rainbow was the harbinger of 

 peace to man, hence it was called 'Iris;' and the circle of 

 blue, grey, or variegated tints around the pupil of the eye is not 

 unlike the rainbow — therefore this circlet was so called by optic 

 scientists, simply because they had no other word; and botanists 

 have, by comparison, applied it to the fleur-de-lis, because it is 

 varied in hue, like the iris of the eye, or the rainbow. Iris 

 does not and did not convey the idea of eye." 



I. pseudacorus — The yellow flag. Gaelic: boguisge — bog, 

 soft, but here a corruption of bogha-uisge, the rainbow. Gaelic 

 and Irish : seilisdear, often seileasdear, and siolasiar. The ter- 

 mination tar, dear, or astar, in these names, means one of a 

 kind, having a settled form or position. One finds this ending 

 common in names of plants — as, oleaster, cotoueaster, &c, like 

 • k ttjp " in Greek, " dear " in Gaelic. Sell (the first syllable), from 

 sol, the sun : solus, light; sol and leus, i.e., lux, light. Greek : 

 HXios (rj or e long), hence sell, e and i to give a lengthened sound, 

 as in Greek. Seileastar, therefore, means the plant of light — 

 Fleur de luce. Other forms of the word occur. Siol instead 

 of sell, as siol sir ach ; siol or sil, to distil, to drop — an alteration 

 probably suggested by the medicinal use made of the roots of 

 the plant, which were dried, and made into powder or snuff, 

 to produce salivation by its action on the mucous membrane. 

 " Feileastrovi, feleastrom, feleastar. Here /is the affected or di- 

 gammated form. When eleastar (another form of the word) lost 

 the ' s,' then, for sound's sake, it took the digammated form 

 (f)elcastar. Strom (the last syllable) is a diminutive termina- 

 tion. Seilistear, diminutive form seilistrin, and corrupted into 

 seilistrom " — Bourke. 



Crocus — Greek : KpoKoq. Much employed amongst the an- 

 cients for seasonings, essences, and for dyeing purposes. 



C. sativus } o a- j a- 



~ , , . . , > — Sanron crocus, meadow sanron. 



Colchicum autumnale j 



Gaelic and Irish : cro, crodh, crock — crodh chorcar. 1 



" 'Se labhair Fionn nan chro-shnuaidh." — Conn Mac Dearg. 

 Thus spake Fingal the saffron-hued. 



" Spiocnard agus croch." — Dana Sholhim, iv. 14. 

 Spikenard and saffron. 



Saffron was much cultivated anciently for various purposes, but 

 above all for dyeing. " The first habit worn by persons of dis- 



1 For coi'cur, see Lceanora tartarea. 



