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used for polishing wood and metal, a quality arising from the 

 cuticle abounding in siliceous cells — hence the use made of the 

 plant for scouring pewter and wooden things in the kitchen. 

 A large quantity used to be imported from Holland, hence 

 the name " Dutch rushes." Irish : gadkar, from gad^ a withe, 

 a twig. Liobhag, from liob/i, smooth, polish. It grows in marshy 

 places and standing water. Cuiridm (O'Reilly), because grow- 

 ing on marshy ground. 



Bryace^e. 



Gaelic and Irish : coinneach^ caomeach^ from caoin^ soft, lowly, 



&c. The principal economic use of moss to the ancient Gaels 



was in making bed-stuffs, just as the Laplanders use it to this day. 



** Tri coilceadha na Feinne, barr gheal chrann, coinneach, 'usur luachair. " 



The three Fenian bed-stuffs — fresh tree-tops, moss, and fresh rushes. 



Welsh : mwswg, moss. 



Sphagnum — Bog-moss. Gaelic : nwinteach Hath {moin, peat, and 

 Hath, grey). From its roots and decayed stalks peat is formed. 

 Fio7inlach^ from Jibnn, white. It covers wide patches of bog, and 

 when full grown it is sometimes almost white ; occasionally the 

 plant has a reddish hue {coinneach dhearg, red moss). Martin re- 

 fers to it in his ' Western Islands : ' " When they are in any way 

 fatigued by travel or other ways, they fail not to bathe their feet 

 in warm water wherein red moss has been boiled, and rub them 

 with it on going to bed." This seems to be the only moss 

 having a specific name in Gaelic, the rest going by the generic 

 term coinneach. 



** Coinich nine mu 'n iomall, 

 A's imadach seorsa." — M'Intyre. 

 Green moss around the edges, 

 Many are the kinds. 



Marchantiace^ and Lichenes. 



Marchantia polymorpha — Liverwort. Gaelic : His an ainean, 

 the liverwort. Irish : ciiisle aibheach. Welsh : Uysiar afu — afu^ 

 the liver. (Names derived from its medicinal effects on the liver.) 

 Irish : duilleog na cn}ith?ieachta, the leaf of (many) shapes or 

 forms. Criith^ form, shape, synonymous with Greek ''^ poly- 

 morpha.^^ 



Peltidea canina — The dog - lichen. Gaelic : His ghonaich 

 (from goin, wound; ghineach, agonising). This plant was for- 

 merly used for curing distemper and hydrophobia in dogs. The 

 name ^^ gear an ^ the herb dog's-ear," is given in the dictionaries. 



N 



