51 



knobbed plant, from its knobbed roots. Old Englisli : kernel- 

 wort. JDonn-lus, brown-wort, from the brown tinge of the leaves. 

 Farach dubh {farac/ia, Irish), a beetle or mallet ; diib/i, dark. 

 Wasps and beetles resort greatly to its small mallet-like flowers. 

 Irish : fair tun {fot,fofhac/i), glandered — from the resemblance of 

 its roots to tumours. In consequence of this resemblance it was 

 esteemed a remedy for all scrofulous diseases; hence the generic 

 name Scrophidaria. 



Digitalis purpurea — Foxglove. Gaelic : his-ììain-ban-sìth, the 

 fairy women's plant. Mcuran stth (Stuart), the fairy thimble. 

 Irish : mi siothan {sioth, Gaelic : sìtJì) means peace. Sithich, 

 a fairy, the most active sprite in Highland and Irish mythology. 

 Meiiraii ^ nan daoine inarbh, dead men's thimbles. Aleuran- nan 

 caillich mharbha, dead women's thimbles. In Skye it is called 

 ciochan nan cailleachan marblia (Nicolson), the dead old women's 

 paps. Irish : sian sleibhc. {Staji, a charm or spell, a wise 

 one, a fox ; sleib/ie, a hill). Welsh : nienyg ellyllon, fairy's glove. 

 O'Reilly gives another Irish name, bolgan beic (diminutive of bolg, 

 a sack, a bag. Greek, BoAyo?, beic, bobbing, curtseying). And 

 frequently in the Highlands the plant is known by the familiar 

 name, an lus mor, the big plant. Liis a bhalgah- (Aberfeldy), 

 the fox-weed. 



Orobanxhace.-e. 



(From Greek, opo^o9, orobos, a vetch, and ayx'^'^^'^ to strangle, in 

 allusion to the effect of these parasites in smothering and de- 

 stroying the plants on which they grow.) The name miichog (from 

 viùcli smother, extinguish, suffocate) is applied to all the species. 

 0. major and minor — Broom-rape. Irish and Gaelic : siorra- 

 lac/i, (Shaw) — sior, vetches, being frequently parasitical on legu- 

 minous plants ; or siorrac/id, rape. 



Verbenace.'E. 

 Verbena officinalis — Vervain, Gaelic and Irish : tronddiod, — 

 ironi, a corruption oi di-iini, from Sanscrit dm, wood; hence Latin, 

 drus, an oak, and bod or boid, a vow. Welsh : dderiven fendigaid, 

 literally, blessed oak, — the " herba sacra " of the ancients. Ver- 

 vain was employed in the religious ceremonies of the Druids. 

 Vows were made and treaties were ratified by its means. "After- 

 wards all sacred evergreens, and aromatic herbs, such as holly, 



1 Meuran and digitalis (iligitabidum) , a thimble, in allusion to the form of 

 the flower. 



