226 The Scottish Naturalist. 



S. nigricans — Bog - rush. Gaelic : seimhean (Armstrong). 

 Irish: seimhin (scimh, smooth, shining — the spikelets being 

 smooth and shining ; or which is more likely, from siobh or 

 siobhag, straw, — hence sioman, a rope made of straw or rushes ; 

 the Greek name ctxolvos for the same reason). 



Scirpus, sometimes written sirpus (Freund), seems to be 

 cognate with the Celtic cirs, cors, a bog-plant ; hence Welsh, 

 corsfruyn, a bulrush (Gaelic, curcais). Many plants of this 

 genus were likewise formerly used for making ropes. (Cords, 

 Latin, chorda ; Welsh, cord; Gaelic and Irish, corda ; Spanish, 

 cuerda, — all derived from cors.) 



S. maritimus — Sea-scirpus. Gaelic and Irish : brbbh. Name 

 from brb. bra, or bradh, a quern, a hand-mill. The roots are 

 large and very nutritious for cattle, and in times of scarcity 

 were ground down in the muileann bradh (French, moulin a 

 bras), to make meal ; bracan, broth, — hence bi'acha, malt, be- 

 cause prepared by manual labour (Greek, fipaxtoiv ; Latin, 

 brachium ; Gaelic, braic ; French, bras, the arm). 



S. caespitosus — Tufted scirpus, deer's hair, heath club-rush. 



Gaelic : dob, dpe, and dob cheann dubh (dob = x i fi s ■> Latin, 



cibus, food ; ceatui, head ; dubh, black). 



" Le'n cridheacha' meara 

 Le bainne na cioba. ' — M'Intyre. 



This is the principal food of cattle and sheep in the Highlands 

 in March, and till the end of May. Cruach luacJiair, — cruach, a 

 heap, a pile, a hill, and luachair, a rush. 



The badge of the Clan M'Kenzie. 



S. lacustris — Bulrush, lake-scirpus. Gaelic: gobhal luachair, 

 the forked rush (gobhal, a fork), from the forked or branched 

 appearance of the cymes appearing from the top of tall, terete 

 (or nearly so), leafless stems. When this tall stem is cut, it 

 goes by the name of cuilc, 1 a cane, and is used to bottom chairs. 

 Irish : gibiun, — gib or giob, rough, and aoin, a rush. Gaelic and 

 Irish, bog mliuiue, boigeau, bog luachair, bog, 2 a marsh, a fen, 

 swampy ground, to bob, to wag, — names indicating its habitat, 

 also its top-heavy appearance, causing it to have a bobbing or 

 wagging motion. Curcais (curach, a marsh, a fen) is more a 

 generic term, and equals scirpus. Min-JJicur, a bulrush. (See 

 Festuca ovina.) 



1 " Mu lochan nan cuilc a tha ruadh." — Tigiimora. 



2 Bog and bblg are frequently interchanged : bblg luachair, prominent or 

 massy rush; from bblg, gen. builg, comes bul in bulrush. 



