362 The Scottish Naturalist. 



dysentery, gout, &c, had all their appropriate remedies in the 

 never-failing incantations." — M'Kenzie. See 'Beauties of High- 

 land Poetry,' p. 268, where several of the "orations" repeated 

 as incantations are given. 



Plants and Fairy Superstitions. — A large number of 

 plant -names in Gaelic have reference to fairy influence. At 

 births many ceremonies were used to baffle the fairy influence 

 over the child, otherwise it would be carried off to fairy- 

 land. The belief in fairies as well as most of these super- 

 stitions, is traceable to the early ages of the British Druids, 

 on whose practices they are founded. The foxglove (Meuran 

 sithe), odhran, the cow-parsnip, and cofiagach, the docken, were 

 credited with great power in breaking the fairy spell ; on the 

 other hand, some plants were supposed to facilitate the fairy 

 spell, and would cause the individual to be fairy "struck" or 

 " buillite" The water-lily was supposed to possess this power, 

 hence its names, B nil lite and Rabhagach, meaning beware, 

 warning. Rushes found a place in fairy mythology : Schcenus 

 nigricans (Seimhean) furnished the shaft of the elf arrows, which 

 were tipped with white flint, and bathed in the dew that lies on 

 the hemlock. 



Nettles — " They also used the roots of nettles and the roots 

 of reeds as cures for coughs." In some parts of Ireland there 

 is a custom on May eve and May day amongst the children, 

 especially the girls, of running amuck with branches of nettles, 

 stinging every one they meet. They had also a belief that steel 

 made hot and dipped in nettle-juice made it flexible. Camden 

 says " that the Romans cultivated nettles when in Britain in 

 order to rub their benumbed limbs with them, on account of the 

 intense cold they suffered when in Britain." A remedy worse 

 than the disease. 



A NEW LIST OP THE FLOWERING PLANTS AND PERNS 



OP ORKNEY. 



Edited by W. IRVINE FORTESCUE. 



{Continued from page 326.) 



xlviii. Potentilla L. 

 91. Tormentilla Sibth., B. Common. Orkney "bark," for- 

 merly used for tanning fishing nets; a decoction ot 

 the roots in milk is still occasionally taken medicinally 

 as an astringent. 



