8o 



Narthecium ossifragum — Bog asphodel. Gaelic and Irish : 

 bitoch, bliochaUj from blioch, milk. Welsh : givaew^r trenbi^ king's 



lance. 



' ' Nuair thigheadh am buaichaill a mach, 

 'Sa gabhadh e mu chul a chriiidh 

 Mu'n cuairt do Bhad-nan-clach-glas, 

 A bhuail 'air m bu trie am bliochd." — M'Leod. 



When the cowherd comes forth, 

 And follows his cows 

 Around Bhad-nan-clach-glas, 

 Often he is struck with the asiohodel. 



Scilla non-scripta— Bluebell; wild hyacinth. GditWc : fuaih 

 m/mic, the pig's fear or aversion, the bulbs being very obnoxious 

 to swine. Brog na acbhaig, cuckoo's shoe. Irish : biith a muc. 

 Probably buth is the same as biigha (see Alliiiin pori'um)^ fear, 

 the pig's fear. M'Lauchainn called it lili giicagach. 

 " Lili gucagach nan cluigean." 

 The bell-flowered lily. 

 S. vema — Squill (and the Latin, scilla, from the Arabic, 

 dsgyT). Gaelic : lear uiiieann, the sea-onion, Lear, the sea, the 

 surface of the sea. 



" Clos na vs\\xv-lear uaine."— OssiAN, 

 The repose of the smooth green sea. 



Welsh : winivyii y vior, sea-onion. 



Tulipa sylvestris — Tulip. Gaelic : tuiliop. The same name 

 in almost all European and even Asiatic countries. Persian : 

 thoidyban (De Souza). 



Asparagus officinalis — Common asparagus. Gaelic : creai)ih 

 mac-fiadh. Irish : creamh-miiic fiadh, wild boar's leek or garlic. 

 The same name is given to hart's tongue fern. Asparag, from 

 the generic name o-n-apaao-u), to tear, on account of the strong 

 prickles with which some of the species are armed. 



Ruscus — Latinised form of Celtic root n/s, wood, husk ; r^/s- 

 gac/i, holly. Welsh : rhysgiad, an over-growing. Also bfuscus, 

 from Celtic, brus, bruis, small branches, brushwood. 



R. aculeatus — Butcher's broom. Gaelic : calg-bhrudhainn 

 (Armstrong). Irish: calgbhrndhan (Shaw) — calg, a prickle, 

 from its prickly leaves ; and bruth, brjiid, a thorn, anything 

 pointed ; bnidha?i, generally spelled brughan, a faggot. Or it 

 may only be a corruption from h'utn, broom. Calg bhealaidh, 

 the prickly broom. It was formerly used by butchers to clean 

 their blocks, hence the English name "butchers' broom." 



