PREFACE. 



The Gaelic Names of Plants, reprinted from a series of 

 articles in the ' Scottish Naturalist,' which have appeared 

 during the last four years, are published at the request of 

 many who wish to have them in a more convenient form. 

 There might, perhaps, be grounds for hesitation in obtrud- 

 ing on the public a work of this description, which can 

 only be of use to comparatively few ; but the fact that no 

 book exists containing a complete catalogue of Gaelic 

 names of plants is at least some excuse for their publication 

 in this separate form. Moreover, it seemed to many able 

 botanists that, both for scientific and philological reasons, 

 it would be very desirable that an attempt should be 

 made to collect such names as are still used in the spoken 

 Gaelic of Scotland and Ireland, before it became too late 

 by the gradual disappearance of the language. Accord- 

 ingly the author undertook this task at the request of the 

 Editor of the * Scottish Naturalist,' Dr Buchanan White, 

 F.L.S. If the difficulties of its accomplishment had been 

 foreseen, he would have hesitated to make the attempt ; 

 as it is, nearly ten years of his life have been occupied in 

 searching through vocabularies, reading Irish and Scot- 

 tish Gaelic, and generally trying to bring into order the 

 confusion to which these names have been reduced partly 

 by the carelessness of the compilers of Dictionaries, and 

 frequently by their botanical ignorance. To accomplish 

 this, numerous journeys had to be undertaken among 



