51 



knobbed plant, from its knobbed roots. Old English : kernel- 

 wort. Don?i-lits, brown-wort, from the brown tinge of the leaves. 

 Farach diibh {faracha, Irish), a beetle or mallet ; dub/i, dark. 

 Wasps and beetles resort greatly to its small mallet-like flowers. 

 Irish \ foiriun {fot^fothacJi)^ glandered — from the resemblance of 

 its roots to tumours. In conse(iuence of this resemblance it was 

 esteemed a remedy for all scrofulous diseases ; hence the generic 

 name Scrophidaria. 



Digitalis purpurea — Foxglove. Gaelic : lus-nani-baii-sith^ tlie 

 fairy women's plant. Meuran sith (Stuart), the fairy thimble. 

 Irish : an siotJum {siot/i, Gaelic : sttk) means peace. Sttkic/i, 

 a fairy, the most active sprite in Highland and Irish mythology. 

 Meuran'^ 7ian daoine marbh, dead men's thimbles. Meuran nan 

 caillich mha7'bha, dead women's thimbles. In Skye it is called 

 ciochan ftan cailleachan marblia (Nicolson), the dead old women's 

 paps. Irish : sian sleibhe. {Sian^ a charm or spell, a wise 

 one, a fox ; sleibhe, a hill). Welsh : menyg ellyllo7i, fairy's glove. 

 O'Reilly gives another Irish name, bolga?i beic (diminutive of bolg^ 

 a sack, a bag. Greek, BoXyo?, beic, bobbing, curtseying). And 

 frequently in the Highlands the plant is known by the familiar 

 name, an lies nior, the big plant. Lus a bhalgair (Aberfeldy), 

 the fox-weed. 



Orobanchace.?!:. 



(From Greek, opo^o^, orobos, a vetch, and cv^x^iv, to strangle, in 

 allusion to the effect of these parasites in smothering and de- 

 stroying the plants on which they grow.) The name miichog (from 

 miich smother, extinguish, suffocate) is applied to all the species. 

 0. major and minor — Broom-rape. Irish and Gaelic : siorra- 

 lac/i, (Shaw) — sior, vetches, being frequently parasitical on legu- 

 minous plants; or* siorrackd, rape. 



VERBENACEiE. 



Verbena officinalis — Vervain. Gaelic and Irish : trombhod, — 

 trom, a corruption oi drum, from Sanscrit dru, wood ; hence Latin, 

 drus^ an oak, and bod or boid, a vow. Welsh : dderiven fendigaid, 

 literally, blessed oak, — the " herba sacra " of the ancients. Ver- 

 vain was employed in the religious ceremonies of the Druids. 

 Vows were made and treaties were ratified by its means. "After- 

 wards all sacred evergreens, and aromatic herbs, such as holly, 



1 Meuran and digitalis {liigitabidum) , a thimble, in allusion to the form of 

 the flower. 



