shoe. Luibh laoib/ieach, — laoi, day, and beachd^ to observe — ie., 

 the plant observed for a day. Irish : cogall^ from coch (Welsh), 

 red ; hence cockle. French : coquille. Welsh : gith, cockle or its 

 seed, a corruption from githago, or 7>ice versa. 



Spergula arvensis — Spurrey. Gaelic: cltiain lin, — cluam, fraud, 

 and li?i, flax — i.e., fraudulous flax. Carran, twisted or knotted. 

 Scotch : yarr. Irish : cabrois, — cab, a head ; rois, polished. 



"Gun deanntag, gun charran." — M'Donald. 

 Without nettle or spurrey. 



Arenaria alsine — Sandwort. Gaelic : flige, perhaps from fliche, 

 water, growing in watery or sandy places. 



Stellaria media — Chickweed. Gaelic : fliodh, an excrescence 

 (Armstrong), sometimes written fluth. Irish : lia, wetting 

 (Gaelic : fluich, wet) ; compare also floch, soft (Latin : flaccus). 

 Welsh : gwlydd, the soft or tender plant. 



S. Holostea — The greater stitchwort. Gaelic : iuirseach, sad, 

 dejected. Irish : tursarrain, the same meaning ; and Stellaria 

 graminea, tursarranin, the lesser stitchwort. Welsh : y wen?i- 

 wlydd, the fair soft-stemmed plant, from gwenn and gwlydd, soft 

 tender stem. 



Cherleria sedoides — Mossy cyphel, found plentifully on Ben 

 Lawers. No Gaelic name, but seorsa coinich, a kind of moss. 



Cerastium alpinum — Mouse- ear chickweed. Gaelic : cluas an 

 Inch, mouse-ear. 



LiNACEiE. 



Linum usitatissimum — Flax. Gaelic : Hon, gen. singular Dn. 

 Welsh : llin. " Greek \ivov and Latin litnmi, a thread, are derived 

 from the Celtic." — Loudon. 



" larraidh i olan agus lion." — Stuart (Job). 

 She will desire wool and flax. 



L. catharticum — Fairy flax. Gaelic : Hon na bean sith^ fairy 

 woman's flax ; miosach, monthly, from a medicinal virtue it 

 was supposed to possess ; mio7iach, bowels ; Ins caolach, slender 

 weed : compare also caolan, intestine (Latin : colon, the large 

 intestine). Both names probably allude to its cathartic eff'ects. 

 Stuart, in Lightfoot's * Flora,' gives these names in a combined 

 form, — an caol miosachan, the slender monthly one. Irish : ceo- 

 lag/i. 



^ This plant is sometimes called Curach na Cubhaig, and C^v//^?/— (hood 

 or cowl). Latin : cucullus. 



B 



