" Mlos bog nan iibhlan brenc-mheallach, 

 Gu peurach plumbach sgeachagach, 

 A' luisreadh sios le dearcagaibh, 



Cir-mhealach, beachach, groiseideach." — Maclachuinn. 

 Soft month of the spotted bossy apples ! 

 Producing pears, plums, and haws, 

 Abounding in berries, 

 Honeycomb, wasps, and gooseberries. 



Uath or huath — the ancient Gaelic and Irish name — has several 

 significations ; but the root seems to be hu (Celtic), that which 

 pervades. Welsh : huad, that which smells or has a scent (huadgu, 

 a hound that scents). " The name hawthorn is supposed to be a 

 corruption of the Dutch haag, a hedge-thorn. 



The badge of the Clan Ogilvie. 



Pyrus (from peren, Celtic for pear). Latin : pyrum. Armoric : 

 p%r. Welsh : peren. French : poire. 



P. communis — Wild pear. Gaelic : craobh pheuran fiadh- 

 ain (peur, the fruit), the wild pear-tree. 



P. malus— "Mel or mal, Celtic for the apple, which the 

 Greeks have rendered /x^Xov, and the Latins malus." — Don, 

 Welsh : afal. Manx : ooyl. Anglo-Saxon : cepl. Norse : apal. 

 apple. Gaelic : ubhal ; craobh ubhal fhiadhain, the wild apple tree- 



" Do mheasan milis cubbraidh 

 Nan iibhlan 's nam peur." — Macdonald. 

 Thy sweet and fragrant fruits, 

 Apples and. pears. 



The old form of the word was adhul or abhul. The culture of 

 apples must have been largely carried on in the Highlands in 

 olden times, as appears from lines by Merlin, who flourished in 

 a.d. 470, of which the following is a translation: — 



" Sweet apple-tree loaded with the sweetest fruit, growing in the lonely wilds 

 of the woods of Celyddon (Dunkeld), all seek thee for the sake of thy produce, 

 but in vain ; until Cadwaldr comes to the conference of the ford of Rheon, and 

 Conan advances to oppose the Saxons in their career. " 



This poem is given under the name of Afallanau, or Orchard, 

 by which Merlin perhaps means Athol — i.e„ Abhal or Adhul — 

 which was believed by old etymologists to acquire its name from its 

 fruitfulness in apple trees. Goirteag (from goirt, bitter), the 

 sour or bitter one (the crab- apple). Irish: Gairtebg. Cuairtagarr 



