13 



Gaelic : biadh nafi eoineafi, birds' food. Irish : billeog nan eun, 

 the leaf of the birds. 



"Timcheall thulmanan diamhair 



Ma 'm bi'm biadh-ionain fas." — M 'Donald. 

 Around sheltered hillocks 

 "Where the wood-sorrel grows, 



Feada coil/e, candle of the woods, name given to tlie flower ; 

 fead/i, a candle or rush. 



*' Mar sin is leasachan soilleir, 

 Do ^\^ fheada-coille na'n cos." — M 'Donald, 

 Like the flaming light 

 Of the wood-sorrel of the caverns. 



Celastrace^e. 



Euonymus europseus — Common spindle-tree. Gaelic and 

 Irish : oir^feoras, — oir, the east point, east. "^ tir an <?//','^from 

 the land of the East {Oirip, Europe), being rare in Scotland and 

 Ireland, but common on the Continent. Oir and feoir also 

 mean a border, edge, limit, it being commonly planted in hedges. 

 Whether the name has any reference to these significations it is 

 very difficult to determine with certainty. Oir, the name of the 

 thirteenth letter, O, of the Gaelic and Irish alphabet. It is 



letters were called after trees or 



RHAMNACEiE. 



Rhamnus (from Gaelic ra7nh, Celtic rajn, a branch, wood). 

 " Talamh nan ramh.'''' — Ossian. 

 The country of woods. 



The Greeks changed the word to pd/xvos and the Latins to ramus. 

 R. catharticus — Prickly buckthorn. Gaelic : ramh droig/iio?tfi^ 

 prickly wood. W^elsh : rhafnwydden, — r/iaf, to spread; wydd, 

 tree. 



