48 



The word blath, meaning flower, is also used in compound 

 words of this kind, as: Blath-na-licuig, the flower of the grave- 

 stones, Iris sp. 



M is named wwiw, the vine. Under this letter we find a number 

 of names of important economic plants. Of these names the 

 compounds of meacan are the most important. The word 

 meacan means root or bulb, and appears in such plant names 

 2is: Meacan buidhe or yellow root, the carrot; meacan dogha, 

 burdock; meacan each horse radish meacan righ, king root, 

 parsnip; meacan rnaidh, red root, radish. 



N, named nuin, stood for the ash tree {Fraxinus excelsior). 

 There are a number of more modern forms of this name. There 

 are only a few plant names under this letter. Neep or neup 

 fhiadhain, the turnip, recalls napiis of the old Romans or Brassica 

 Napus L. 



O, named oir, stood for the Spindle tree (Euonymus europaeus). 

 Few Gaelic plant names begin with the letter O. Of these, 

 however, the following deserves some notice: Oirp or norp, in 

 French orpin, is the name for the house-leek {Sempervivum 

 tectorum), a member of the Orpine family (Crassidaceae.) 



P, named peeth-hhog, i. e., soft B, does not stand for any plant 

 in the Irish language. Cameron ("The Gaelic Names of Plants ") 

 assigns peeth to the pine iPinus syhestris) ; the name for that 

 species however, is giumgas in Irish iguithas in Scotch). 



There are a number of plant names under this letter among 

 which are: Plur or flur, a flower or blossom, of which fluireift 

 is a diminutive. These words also signify flour or fine meal. 



Paipin, the word for poppy, according to Cameron, is a 

 corruption of the Latin word Papaver. Paipin ruadh is the red 

 poppy {Papaver rhoeas). The juice of this plant was often put 

 in children's food to make them sleep. — the original Mrs. 

 Winslow's Soothing Syrup! 



Paipin duhh is the black poppy {Papaver nigrum). The 

 Manxmen call it lus y chadlee, the plant for sleep. 



Papaver somniferum, the white poppy, is called codalan or 

 collaidin ban. Codalan in Irish means a nap or '' somnus brevis." 

 Pacharan chapull is the bog bean {Menyanthes trifoliata). 

 The leaves of this plant were formerly smoked as tobacco. 



In conclusion it might be well to state that interesting as is 

 the gateway to the Celtic Garden, i. e., its alphabet, the interior 



