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" Do'n t-siol chruithncachd, chuireadh gu tiugh ; 

 Cha b' e' n fhiteag, no' n coirc dnhh.'" — M 'Donald. 



When oats become black with blight, the name coiix diihh is 

 applied, but especially to the variety called Avena strigosa. 



Hordeum distichon — Barley ; the kind which is in common 

 cultivation. (" Barley " comes from Celtic bar, bread, now 

 obsolete in Gaelic, but still retained in Welsh — hence bavji, 

 and by tlie change of the vowel, beer.) Gaelic and Irish : eoi-Jia, 

 onia. Irish : earn (perhaps from Latin, /lorreo, to bristle ; 

 Gaelic, or, a beard) — O'Reilly. " The bearded or bristly bar- 

 ley ; " " oi'og" a sheaf of corn. Hordeum, sometimes written 

 ordcuììi (Freund), is from the same root. " It was cultivated 

 by the Romans for horses, and also for the army ; and gladia- 

 tors in training were fed with it, and hence called hordiarii." 

 It is still used largely in the Highlands for bread, but was for- 

 merly made into " crowdie," properly corrody, from Low Latin, 

 corrodiuvi, a worry. 



" Fuarag èorn ann' sail mo bhroge, 

 Biadh a b' fhearr a fhuir mi riamh." 

 Barley-crowdie in my shoe, 

 The sweetest food I ever knew. 



Irish : caineog, oats and barley — from cain (Greek, kìJvo-os ; Latin, 

 ceììsìis), rent, tribute. Rents were frequently paid in " kind," 

 instead of in money. 



Secale cereale — Common rye. Gaelic and Irish : seagall. 

 Greek : o-exaXy/. Armoric : segal. French : seigle. 

 " An cruithneach agus an seagall." — Exodus. 

 The wheat and the rye. 

 Welsh : rhyg, rye. 



Molinia caerulea — Purple melic -grass. Gaelic: bunglàs 

 (M 'Donald), pnuglàs. {Bun, a root, a stack ; glàs, blue.) The 

 fishermen round the west coast and in Skye make ropes for their 

 nets of this grass, which they find by experience will bear the 

 water well without rotting. Irish : mealoigfer corciiir (O'Reilly), 

 — 7)iealoig= 7nelic {irom mel, honey), the pith is like honey; 

 fcr or fciir, grass ; corcuir, crimson or purplish. In some 

 parts of the Highlands the plant is called braban (Stewart.) 



Glyceria. — From Greek, yXvKV'i, sweet, in allusion to the 

 foliage. 



G. fluitans — Floating sweet grass. Milsean iiisgc, millieach 

 ;//jXi',— perhaps from millse, sweetness. Horses, cattle, and 

 swine are fond of this grass, which only grows in watery places. 



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