Local Plant Names. 195 



20th January, 1911. 



Chairman— H. S. Gladstone, M.A., F.Z.S., M.B.O.U., 

 President. 



Tlie Council agreed to thank Mr John M. Corrie for his 

 services as Curator of the Antiquities, which office he had now 

 resigned on his removal to Newtown St. Boswells. 



The Council agreed to the appointment of Mr Robert 

 Service and Mr S. Arnott as honorary members. 



Local Plant Names. By Mr S. Arnott, F.R.H.S. 



In a former paper, read by me at a meeting of this Society 

 on February 17, 1905, I spoke of a number of plant names in 

 popular use, e.specially in this locality, and contrasted these with 

 some current elsewhere. This paper was published in the 

 Society's "Transactions," Vol. XVII., Part 5, pp. 404-410, to 

 which I would refer those interested for the names of plants not 

 now dealt with. 



Among the names which have puzzled me considerably is 

 that of Saugh, as applied to the Willow. This I have been 

 unable to find in any, save one, of the books devoted to plant lore 

 and popular names, and I should like to know how far its use 

 extends and also its origin. Is it Celtic or Scandinavian? So far 

 as I have observed it is applied indiscriminately to all the tall 

 species of Salix, or Willow, but I have an impression that it ought 

 to be confined to one or two, just as the English Sallow is limited 

 to a few species. The Willow appears to have few names among 

 the English-speaking races, but in the United States the name has 

 frequently some distinctive prefix, the one most interesting being 

 that of "Pussy " Willow, used for Salix discolor in the United 

 States. The name of Bour-tree, applied almost universally in 

 Scotland to the Elder, suggests an interesting discussion regard- 

 ing its origin. It is said to be due to the bore or hole left in a 

 branch of the bush or tree when the pith is extracted, but I am 

 not sure that this is the origin of it. May it not have been 

 Bower-tree? It was much employed in olden days to plant round 

 and about gardens and beside houses to ward off witches, and I 

 have an impression that it may have derived the name as being 

 a plant which, arbour-like, gave protection to those who sit under 



