43 



irerpa, a rock or crag. (The samphire glows on cliffs on 

 the shore). Gaelic : an cnamh /us, the digesting weed ; 

 ■tnamh (from Greek: xva.«>; Welsh: cnoi; Irish: cnaoi), chew, 

 digest. The herb makes a good salad, and is used medicin- 

 ally. Irish: grioloigin. Geirgin (O'Reilly). A sea-side 

 plant growing on rocks and cliffs. From its bitter taste the Gaelic- 

 name is supposed to be derived. Geur, sharp, and in Irish, geire, 

 sourness, tartness. O'Reilly also gives " saphir," a corruption of 

 •samphire. Greinhrigin is given by Threlkeld as the name in 

 Connaught, gairgean cregach in some places. Manx: /us ny greg, 

 the rock plant. 



Peucedarmm ostruthium — Great masterwort. Gaelic: mbr 

 fhliodh (Armstrong), the large excrescence, or the large chick- 

 weed. 



P. officinale — Hog-fennel or sow-fennel. Gaelic : fineal sraide 

 {Shaw) — sraitfe, a lane, a walk, a street. This plant is not found 

 in Scotland, but was cultivated in olden times for the stimulating 

 qualities attributed to the root. 



Anethum graveolens — Strong-scented or common dill. Gaelic 

 and Irish : di/e (Macdonald) (Latin : diligo) — dile, a word in Gaelic 

 meaning love, affection, friendship. The whole plant is very 

 .aromatic, and is used for medicinal preparations. 



Sium sisarum — Skirrets. Gaelic : cromagan (Shaw), from crom, 

 bent, crooked, from the form of its tubers. The tubers were 

 boiled and served up with butter, and were declared by Worl- 

 ridge, in 1682, to be "the sweetest, whitest, and most pleasant 

 of roots;" formerly cultivated in Scotland under the name of 

 "crummock,'' a corruption of the Gaelic name. Irish: cearracan 

 -(O'Reilly), applied to the root of this plant and the carrot. 



S. angustifolium — Water -parsnip. Gaelic: folachdan (Arm- 

 strong), from folachd, luxuriant vegetation ; an, water. Irish : 

 xosadh dubhadh, the great water-parsnip (O'Reilly), (cos, a foot, 

 stalk, shaft, and dubh, great, prodigious). 



Pastinaca sativa — Parsnip. Gaelic: meacan-an-righ, the king's 

 root, royal root. Curran geal (from cur, to sow, geai, white). 

 Irish : cuiridin ban, the same meaning (cuirim, I plant or sow). 

 Welsh: moron gwynion, field carrot. The natives of Harris make 

 use of the seeds of the wild white carrot, instead of hops, for 



