100 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



Switzerland or elsewhere, who had seen a great sacred lime-tree in that 

 country, erroneously identified it as belonging to the same species, which he 

 would be the more likely to do if the story of its rich juice was already being 

 told. The glossator of the Codex Salmaticensis seems to have been aware that 

 the Inis Cealtra tree was really an elm, as he wrote scilicet levian, " that is, an 

 elm," on the margin of the MS. 



There is a note in the Yellow Book of Lecan (facs. p. 420, col. 2, 

 line 29), and in a modern MS. (E.I.A. 23 G 5, p. 96), to the effect that 

 Cormac mac Cuillenain brought an alder-tree to Inis Cealtra, and that it 

 propagated as an apple ; that God wrought a miracle upon it, so that apples 

 grew out of it like every other apple, which adhuc niulti uident. The same 

 note occurs in Harl. 5280, fo. 42, whence Professor Meyer has published it 

 in " Folk-lore," vol. v, p. 309, in illustration of a similar story told in the 

 Norse Sixcuhim Eegale about Bt. Caoimhghen at Glendaloch.' When we 

 remember that Kadchaoimhe, the pupil of Colum, was a brother of 

 Caoimhghen, we see that this tale is only another version of the same story, 

 Cormac and Colum having become confused together. There is no other 

 evidence of any connexion of Cormac with the island." Dr. Henry reminds 

 ine that it is not an uncommon experience of amateur gardeners to think they 

 are planting one thing, and to find when it grows up that it has been 

 something quite different. The phenomenon is no longer explained as a 

 miracle, however. 



Stellan is referred to by name in a letter concerning the celebration of 

 Easter, written to the Irish clergy from Rome. This, and the fact of his 

 death three years before that of Caimin, are all that is known of liim : Colgan 

 is our authority. The Bollaudists merely mention him, with a reference to 

 Colgan, among the pretermitted saints (May, vol. v, p. 270). 



Caimin was a descendant of Enna Cennselach, pentarch of Leinster. The 

 steps in the pedigree are given thus in the Book of Lecan' — Caimi«e 

 I?ise Geitra mac Di»imae laeic Fergwsa meic Ailella mete Nathi mcic Crirathahvi 

 meic En?ia Gendselaic/h. His mother was Cumman, daughter of Dallbronach, 

 who was also mother of Guaire Aidhne, pentarch of Connacht ; a quatrain 

 quoted in the Annals of the Four Masters, A.D. 66'2, credits her with 

 seventy-seven children I In the poem edited by Kuno Meyer, under the title 

 "King and Hermit," and again in the Eabelaisian extravaganza called 

 Imtheacht iia Tromdiiaimlie, another brother of Guaire, by name Marbhan, 



' The "Folk-lore " article i.s reprinted in " Erin," vol. iv, p. 1. 



^ Possibly the original writer of this note liad a confused recollection of Cormac'spoem 

 on the Yew of the Sons of Angciss (LL 26 a) in liis head. 

 ' P. 101, lower marginal pagination. 



