70 



Populus alba — Poplar. Gaelic : pobhuill. Irish : poibleag. 

 German : pappel. Welsh and Armoric : pobl. Latin : populus. 

 This name has an Asiatic origin, and became a common name 

 to all Europe through the Aryan family from the East.^ Pictet 

 explains it thus : " Ce nom est sans doute une reduplication de 

 la racine Sanskrit////, magnum, altum." Ful pul, great, great, or 

 big, big, as in the Hebrew construction, very big. We still say 

 in Gaelic mor mor, big, big, for very big. Pul pul vi the Persian 

 for poplar, and pullah for saHx. This tree is quite common in 

 Persia and Asia Minor, hence it was as well known there as in 

 Europe. The name has become associated with populus., the 

 people, by the fact that the streets of ancient Rome were deco- 

 rated with rows of this tree, whence it was called Arbor populi. 

 Again, it is asserted that the name is derived from the constant 

 movement of the leaves, which are in perpetual motion, like the 

 populace — " fickle, like the multitude, that are accursed." 



P. tremula — Aspen. Gaelic and Irish : critheaim^ trembling. 



" Mar chritheach san t' sine," — Ull. 

 Like an aspen in the blast. 



With the slightest breeze the leaves tremble, the poetic belief 

 being that the wood of the Cross was made from this tree, 

 and that ever since the leaves cannot cease from trembling. 

 Eadhadh. Welsh : aethneii (aethiad, smarting). The mulberry 

 tree of Scripture is supposed to be the aspen (Balfour), and in 

 Gaelic is rendered craobh nan smeur. (See Morus and Rubus 

 fruticosus. ) 



' * Agus an uair a chluineas tu fuim siubhail an mullach chraobh nan smeur, 

 an sin gluaisidh tu thu fein." — 2 Samuel v, 24. 



And when thou hearest a sound of marching on the tops of the mulberry 

 trees, that then thou shalt bestir thyself. 



The badge of Clan Fergusson. 



Salix — According to Pictet, from Sanskrit, sala, a tree. 



" II a passe au snale dans plusieurs langues 

 , . . Ces noms derivent de sala. " 



Gaelic and Irish : seileac/t, saileog, sal, suil. Cognate with Latin : 

 salix. Fin. : salawa. Anglo-Saxon : salig, salh, from which 



^ See Canon Bourke's work on ' The Aryan Origin of the Gaelic Race 

 and Language, ' London: Longman. 



