The Scottish Naturalist. 225 



" 'S X\ox\m\\ox feadan caol, 



Air an eirich gaoth." — M'lNTYRE. 



Doubtless suggested by the whistling of the wind among the 

 rushes and reeds. The common rush and the soft rush were 

 much used in ancient times as bed - stuffs ; they served for 

 strewing floors, making rough couches, &c. 



J. articulatus — Jointed rush. Gaelic : lochan nan damh. 

 This name is given by Lightfoot in his ' Flora Scotica,' but it 

 should have been lachan nan damh. Lachan, a reed, the ox 

 or the hart's reed. 



J. squarrosus — Heath-rush, stool-bent. Gaelic : bru-corcur 

 (M'Alpine), — bru-chorachd, the deers' moor-grass; bru, a deer, a 

 hind ; corcach, a moor or marsh. See Scirfius. 



' ' Bnichorachd as ciob, x 

 Lusan am bi brigh," &c. 



— M'Intyre in 'Ben Doran.' 



Heath-rush and " deer's hair, " 

 Plants nutritious they are, &c. 



Specimens of this plant have also been supplied with the Gaelic 

 name ?noran labelled thereon, and in another instance muran. 

 These names mean the plants with tapering roots ; the same 

 signification in the Welsh, moron, a carrot. (See Muirneach — 

 Anwwphila arenaria.) 



J. maritimus and acutus — Sea-rush. Irish : meithan (O'Reil- 

 ly). Meit/i, fat, corpulent. J. acutus (the great sea-rush) is the 

 largest British species. 



Luzula. — Name supposed to have been altered from Italian, 

 /uccio/a, a glow-worm. It was called by the ancient botanists 

 gramen luxulce (Latin, htx, light). 



L. sylvatica — Wood-rush. Gaelic : luachar cb'ille, the bright 

 grass or rush of the wood. The Italian name lucciola is said to be 

 given from the sparkling appearance of the heads of flowers when 

 wet with dew or rain. Learman (Stewart), possibly from tear or 

 leir, clear, discernible; a very conspicuous plant, more of the 

 habit of a grass than a rush, the stalk rising to the height of 

 more that two feet, and bearing a terminal cluster of brownish 

 flowers, with large light-yellow anthers. 



Cyperace/E. 

 Schoenus (from xoivos or crxotVos, a cord in Greek). — From 

 plants of this kind cords or ropes were made. 



1 See Scirpus caspitosns. 

 VOL. VI. P 



