6o 



Atriplex hastata and patula — Common orache. Gaelic and 

 Irish : praiseach inhin. Mm, meal, ground fine, small. Still 

 used by poor people as a pot-herb. Ceathramha-luain-griollog 

 (O'Reilly), loin-quarters. CeatJwamadh caorach (Bourke), sheep's 

 quarters. The name grioHog is applied also to the samphire. 



A. portulacoides — Purslane like orache. Gaelic and Irish : 

 purpaidh, purple. A name also given to the poppy. Name 

 given on account of the purple appearance of the plant, it being 

 streaked with red in the autumn. 



Chenopodium vulvaria (or olidum) — Stinking goosefoot. 

 Irish : elefleog. El or ela, a swan ; and fle or fleadh, a feast. It 

 was said to be the favourite food of swans. Scotch : oloiir 

 (Latin, olor, a swan). 



C. album — White goosefoot. Gaelic and Irish : praiseach 

 fiadhain, wild pot-herb. The people of the Western Highlands, 

 and poor people in Ireland, still eat it as greens. Praiseach 

 glas, green pot-herb, a name given to the fig- leaved goosefoot 

 (Jicifolium). 



C. Bonus-Henricus — Good King Henry, wild spinage, English 

 Mercury. Gaelic and Irish : praiseach brdthair, the friar's pot- 

 herb. {Brdthair means brother, also friar — frere). Its leaves 

 are still used as spinage or spinach, in defect of better. 



Laurace/f:. 



Laurus (from Sanskrit labhasa, abundance of foliage ; root 

 labh, to take, to desire, to possess — akin to Greek, XafxPav(ji, 

 lamband). — Gaelic : lamh, a hand (Canon Bourke). 



L. nobilis — The laurel, the bay-tree (which must not be con- 

 founded with our common garden laurel, Primus lauro-cerasus 

 and P. hisitajiicus). Gaelic and Irish : labhras. Crann laoibh- 

 reil, the tree possessing richness of foliage. With its leaves 

 poets and victorious generals were decorated. The symbol of 

 triumph and victory. It became also the symbol of massacre 

 and slaughter, hence another Gaelic name, casgair, to slaugh- 

 ter, to hit right and left. Ur uaine, the green bay-tree. 



* ' Agus e' ga sgaoileadh fein a mach mar fir chraoibh tiaine. " 

 And spreading himself like a green hay-tree. — Psalm xxxvii. 35, 



Ur = bay or palm tree, from the Sanskrit, iirh, to grow up. 

 Palm Sunday is styled ^^ Doinhnach an ?7/;'," the Lord's day of 

 the palm. 



L. cinnamomum — Cinnamon. Gaelic and Irish : caineal. 



