69 



bedu^ seemingly from beath. Greek : yStwrry. Latin : vita, life. 

 Also the name of the letter B in Celtic languages, correspond- 

 ing to Hebrew ^^M (meaning a house). Greek : Beta. Generally 

 written beith. 



" Sa bheiih chubhraidh." — OssiAN. 

 In the fragrant birch. 



The Highlanders formerly made many economical uses of this 

 tree. Its bark {meiHeag), they burned for light, and the smooth 

 inner bark was used, before the invention of paper, for writing 

 upon, and the wood for various purposes. 



The badge of the Clan Buchanan. 



B. verrucosa — Knotty birch. Gaelic : beatha carraigeach, the 

 rugged birch ; beatha dubh-chasach, the dark-stemmed birch. 



B, pendula — Gaelic : beatha dubhach, the sorrowful birch 

 (dubhachj dark, gloomy, sorrowful, mourning, frowning). In 

 Rannoch and Breadalbane : Beatha cluasach, the many (droop- 

 ing) ear birch. (Stuart.) 



B. nana. — Dwarf birch. Gaelic : beatha beag (Fergusson), the 

 small birch. 



Castanea vesca — Common chestnut. Gaelic and Irish : chra- 

 obh geanm-chno. 



" No na Qxz.Q\i\\z. geanm-chno cosmhuil r'a gheugaibh." — Ezekiel xxxi. 8. 

 Nor the chestnut-tree like his branches. 



Geanm or geaufi, natural love, pure love, such as exists between 

 relatives, — the tree of chaste love, and aio, a nut. The Celts 

 evidently credited this tree with the same virtues as the chaste 

 tree, Vitex agnus castiis (Greek, dyi/os ; and Latin, castus, 

 chaste). Hence the Athenian matrons, in the sacred rites of 

 Ceres, used to strew their couches with its leaves. Castanea is 

 said to be derived from Castana, a town in Pontus, and that 

 the tree is so called because of its abundance there. But the 

 town Castana (Greek, Kao-ravoi') was probably so called on 

 account of the virtues of its female population. If so, the Eng- 

 lish name chestnut would mean chaste-nut, as it is in the Gaelic. 

 Welsh : castan (from Latin, caste), chastely, modestly. The 

 chestnut-tree of Scripture is now supposed to be Platanus orien- 

 talis, the Chenar plane-tree. 



[.ffisculus hippocastanum — The horse - chestnut. Gaelic : 

 geanm chno feadhaich (Fergusson). Belongs to the order Acer- 

 acece. Was introduced to Scotland in 1709.] 



