690 



travel on a horse, one must go in front ; and so it is with these cross- 

 worts — the younger brother, the cabbage, carries away the pubhc 

 attention and position by his greater usefulness. Brassica campestris 

 has scarcely a thought given it, except by our faithful historian, Ge- 

 rarde, who says, that ' wild colewort hath broad leaves not unlike to 

 the tame colewort, but lesser, as is all the rest of the plant ; is of 

 nature wild, and, therefore, not sought after as a meat.' " But to our 

 quotation : — 



"A good ' Irishian,' as a scholar in 'the vernacular' is styled, is 

 always somewhat of a Latinist besides ; and, holding it as undoubted 

 that the more juvenile tongue is no other than the Celtic cloaked in 

 iEolic terminations, our ancient philologer never looked into Ains- 

 worth until he had first sacked O'Reilly, having found the hard Cel- 

 tic word Bresic — meaning a tegument, and softened down into 

 Brassica — he announced it as the origin of the northern Irishman's 

 {vulgo, the Scotchman's) mode of designating his inferior garments, 

 or ' breeks.' Getting on thus to the specific distinction of our plant, 

 campestre, he finds a second explanation in addition to that of a 'flat 

 field,' — it also means ' tegmen^ a covering, an apron ; upon this hint 

 our Irishian pronounced he had discovered why early Celtic writers 

 had repudiated the notion that mere fig-leaves supplied materials for 

 the primitive tailoring of Paradise. Thus does our bold Hibernian 

 scholar and antiquary triumphantly prove, that it was not in a paltry 

 plication of fig-leaves Adam and his Eve enveloped themselves, but 

 they fetched from their vegetable garden the superior substantiality 

 and size of cabbage-leaves, which were laid in folds around them for 

 a cincture. He neatly shows that the kilt was continued from that 

 paradisaical era by the Irish, although now worn chiefly by the Scot- 

 tish branch of the Celtic people ; and also thinks that the variety of 

 Brassica called red cabbage may have been alternated in the petti- 

 coat, with the greener leaves as a tasteful variety, in this ancient ve- 

 getable tartan ; which, being cool and comfortable, would be suitable 

 enough in a warm Eastern climate." — P. 181. 



The pretty little awl-wort {Suhularia aquatica) furnishes an appro- 

 priate allusion to one of the sweetest of Moore's ' Irish Melodies.' Of 

 this " paddling pet of the mountain ponds," our author observes, " we 

 do not find much to remark," since 



" It has not won a reputation in medicine-mongering or witchcraft. 

 Like the citizen in '.Julius Cajsar,' it might say, if it could speak — 

 ' Truly, sir, all that I live by is with the awl : I meddle with no 

 tradesman's matters, nor women's matters, but with awl.' It has, in 



