86 



also its top-heavy appearance, causing it to have a bobbing or 

 wagging motion. Curcais {airach, a marsh, a fen) is more a 

 generic term, and equals scirpus. Min-fheiir, a bulrush. (See 

 Festuca ovina.) 



Badge of Clan M'Kay. 



Eriophorum (from tpiov, wool, and cf>ipiu, to bear). — Its seeds 

 are covered with a woolly substance — hence it is called cotton- 

 grass. 



E. vaginatum and E. polystachyon — Cotton-sedge. Scotch : 

 cafs-tail. Gaelic and Irish : canach. Irish : cona (from can^ 

 white), from its hypogynous bristles forming dense tufts of white 

 cottony down, making the plant very conspicuous in peaty bogs. 

 The canach in its purity and whiteness formed the object of 

 comparison in Gaelic poetry for purity, fair complexion, &c., 

 especially in love-songs : — 



" Do chneas mar an canach 

 Co cheanalta thla." — M'Intyre. 



Thy skin white as the cotton-grass 

 So tender and gentle. 



" Bu ghile na'n cattach a cruth."— OssiAN. 



Her form was fairer than the down of Cana, 



In Ossian the plant is also called caoin chean?i {caoin^ soft), the 

 soft heads, fair heads. 



** Ghlac mi'n caoin cheanna sa' bheinn 

 'Siad ag aomadh mu shruthaibh thall 

 Fo charnaibh, bu diomhaire gaoth."— Tighmora. 



I seized cotton-grasses on the hill, 



As they waved by their seci-et streams, 



In places sheltered from the wind. 



This is only the plural form of the name canach — caineichean. 



^^ Na caineichean aluinn an t-shleibh." — M'Leod. 



O'Reilly gives the name sgathog fladhain to E. polystachyon, — 

 sgath, a tail, and og (dim. termination), the little tail, — to distin- 

 guish it from vaginatum, which is larger. Scotch : cafs-tail. 



Badge of Clan Sutherland. 



Carex (likely from Welsh, cors ; Ga.elic,carrf a bog, a marsh, 

 or fenny ground). — This numerous family of plants grows most- 

 ly in such situations. Seisg, sedge ; gallsheilisdear, also seilisdear 

 amh (for Seilisdear, see Iris), — amh, raw — the raw sedge. 

 Welsh : hesg, Seasg, barren, unfruitful. Except C. rigida, they 



