356 The Scottish Naturalist. 



Sambucus nigra— (Druman) The elder. "The common people 

 [of the Highlands] keep as a great secret in curing wounds the 

 leaves of the elder, which they have gathered the first day of 

 April, for the purpose of disappointing the charms of witches. 

 They affix them to their doors and windows." — C. de Iryngin, 

 at the Camp of Athole, June 30, 165 1. 



Misletoe and ivy were credited with similar powers. " The 

 inhabitants cut withies of misletoe and ivy, make circles of 

 them, keep them all the year, and pretend to cure hectic 

 and other troubles by them." — See Appendix to Pennant's 

 < Tour.' 



"The misletoe," says Valancey, in his 'Grammar of the Irish 

 Language,' "was sacred to the Druids, because not only its 

 berries, but its leaves also, grew in clusters of three united to 

 one stock." 



Carduus benedictus — Fothannan beannuichte, though applied 

 to " Marianus" is probably " Centawea be7iedicta" and was 

 so called from the many medicinal virtues it was thought to 

 possess. It is a native of Spain and the Levant, 



C. heterophyllus — Melancholy thistle. Was said to be the 

 badge of James I. of Scotland. A most appropriate badge ; 

 but yet it had no connection with the unfortunate and melan- 

 choly history of the Stuarts, but was derived from the belief 

 that a decoction of this plant was a sovereign remedy for mad- 

 ness, which, in older times, was called " melancholy." 



The plant generally selected to represent the Scotch heraldic 

 thistle is Onopordon acanthium, the cotton-thistle, and, strange 

 to say, it does not grow wild in Scotland. Achaius, king of 

 Scotland (in the latter part of the eighth century), is said to 

 have been the first to have adopted the thistle for his device. 

 Favine says Achaius assumed the thistle in combination with 

 the rue : the thistle, because it will not endure handling ; and 

 the rue, because it would drive away serpents by its smell, 

 and cure their poisonous bites. The thistle was not received 

 into the national arms before the fifteenth century. 



Quercus robur — Darach. The age of the oak-tree was a 

 matter of much curiosity to the old Gaels : — 



" Tri aois coin, aois eich ; 

 Tri aois eich, aois duine ; 

 Tri aois duine, aois feidh ; 

 Tri aois feidh, aois firein ; 

 Tri aois firein, aois craoibh-dharaich. " 



