TJie Scottish Naturalist. 301 



L. gemmatum — The puff-ball, fuz-ball. Gaelic and Irish: 

 caoc/iag, from caoch (Latin, ccecus), blind, empty, blasting. It 

 is a common idea that its dusty spores cause blindness. Balg 

 smuid, the smoke-bag; balg seidid/i, the puff-bag. Balg peiteach 

 bocan, or bochdan-bearrach (bochdan, a hobgoblin, a sprite, and 

 bearr, brief, short), and bonaid an losgainn, are frequently applied 

 to all the mushrooms, puff-balls, and the whole family of the 

 larger fungi. 



Polyporus. — The various forms of cork -like fungi growing 

 on trees are called caise (Irish), meaning cheese, and in Gaelic 

 spuing or (Irish) spuinc, sponge, from their porous spongy 

 character. 



P. fomentarius and P. betulinus — Soft tinder. Gaelic : cail- 

 leach spuinge, the spongy old woman, — a corruption of the 

 Irish caisleach spuine, soft, cheese-like sponge. It is much used 

 still by Highland shepherds for making amadou or tinder, and 

 for sharpening razors. 



Mucedo — Moulds. Cxaelic : rfoimh liat/i, grey down. Mildew, 

 milchco. 



Mushrooms bear a conspicuous part in Celtic mythology from 

 their connection with the fairies, — they formed the tables for 

 their merry feasts. Fairy rings (Marasmius oreades, and other 

 species of Agarici) were unaccountable to our Celtic ancestors 

 save by the agency of supernatural beings. 



Alg.e. 



The generic names assigned to sea-weeds in Gaelic are : 

 feamainn (fea?n, a tail) ; trailleach (M'Alpine), (from trdig/i, 

 shore, sands) ; barra-rochd (barr, a crop), roc. Greek : pw£, 

 French : roche, a rock. Welsh : gwymon, sea-weed. French : 

 varec, from Sanscrit, bharc, through the Danish vrag. All the 

 olive -coloured sea -weeds go by the general name feamainn 

 buidhe ; the dark green, feamainn dub/i ; and the red, feamainn 

 derg. 



Fucus vesiculosus — Sea-ware, kelp-ware, black tang, lady- 

 wrack. Gaelic : propac/i, sometimes prablach, tangled ; in some 

 places grbbac/i, grob, to dig, to grub. 



This fucus forms a considerable part of the winter supply of 

 food for cattle, sheep, and deer. In the Hebrides cheeses are 

 dried without salt, but are covered with the ashes of this plant, 

 which abounds in salt. It was also used as a medicinal 

 charm. " If, after a fever, one chanced to be taken ill of a 



