92 SCOTCH NAMES OF NATIVE WILD FLOWERS. 



of it, or the skin of the Scot has developed a corresponding degree 

 of obstinacy with the rest of the man, for we find the plant cure 

 discarded ages ago for the more drastic treacle and brimstone. 



Besides these grasses already named which are not grasses in 

 the modern sense of the word, we have the common English 

 names of many plants retaining the original root meaning, e.g., 

 cotton-grass (already given), arrow-grass {Triglochin), goose-grass 

 ( Galium Aparine), grass of Parnassus {Parnassia palustris), knot- 

 grass {Polygonum aviculare), scorpion-grass {Myosotis), whitlow- 

 grass {Draba verna), etc. 



Corn-Weeds. 



Of the corn-weeds the two which seem to have caused most 

 trouble are the corn-marigold {Chrysanthemum segetum) and 

 charlock {Sinapis arvensis and Raphanus Raphanistrum). Together 

 they went by the name of guilde or gool, from gol or gul, the 

 colour of gold — yellow. That they were bad pests is proved by 

 the ancient custom of " riding the guilde " in each barony once a 

 year. This ceremony consisted in the baron with his bailiffs 

 riding over his territory to inspect the growing crops and to see that 

 the farmers were doing their duty in clearing out the obnoxious 

 weeds. Where this was not satisfactorily done a fine was imposed 

 in proportion to the offence. Marigold, in addition, was named 

 manelet, either from the above-mentioned custom — its presence 

 causing the farmer to main, or moan, or lament over the payment 

 of the guilde fine — or from the old Scotch word mane, meaning 

 vigour, on account of its spreading power and of the difficulty in 

 getting the fields cleaned of it. The plant is now pretty well 

 subdued in our locality ; but in some parts of the country it con- 

 tinues to be a source of great trouble to the farmer. It was again 

 christened for us by our French allies soucye, from the old French 

 name of the plant, souci or soulsie; and the latter again from the 

 Latin, sol-sequens, following the sun — a habit common to many 

 other plants. 



The wild-mustard plant {Sinapis arvensis) and the wild-radish 

 {Raphanus Raphanistrum), for no distinction is made between the 

 two, got, in addition to guilde, the French name runches, from 

 an obsolete French verb, ronger, to eat. The Scotch verb runch, 

 not given in Jamieson, is from the same root. This plant 



