4 8 



heath madder. It grows abundantly among heather. O'Reilly 

 gives this name also to G. verum. 



G. cruciata — Cross wort, the whirl of four leaves forming a 

 cross. The Manx name is a translation, bossan tessen, cross wort. 

 G. verum — Yellow bedstraw. Ruin, ruamh, from ruadh, red. 

 Irish : ru (O'Reilly). " The Highlanders use the roots to dye red 

 •colour. Their manner of doing so is this : The bark is stripped 

 ■off the roots, in which bark the virtue principally lies. Then they 

 boil the roots thus stripped in water, to extract what little virtue 

 remains in them; and after taking them out, they last of all put 

 the bark into the liquor, and boil that and the yarn they intend to 

 -dye together, adding alum to fix the colour " (Lightfoot). 



Lus an leasaich (in Glen Lyon) the rennet weed. " The rennet 

 is made, as already mentioned, with the decoction of this herb. 

 The Highlanders commonly added the leaves of the Urtica dioica 

 or stinging-nettle, with a little salt" (Lightfoot). Irish: baladh 

 .chnis (O'Reilly), the scented form (baladh, odour, scent, cneas, 

 form). Chongullion (Threl) — Cuchullin's dog. Welsh: Ceiiion, 

 This name must not be confounded with Crios Chu-chulainn. 

 " Queen of the Meadow," or " Meadow Sweet." O'Reilly also 

 ■gives " Cucuillean" as a name for the "bedstraw." The same 

 name given in Glenlyon as lus Chu-chulainn. Manx : lus y volley, 

 sweet herb. 



Asperula odorata — Woodruff. Gaelic : lus-a-chaitheamh, the 

 -consumption herb, as it was much used for that disease (Fergus- 

 son). Probably the Irish name baladh chnis, the scented form, is 

 the woodruff, and not the lady's bedstraw ; it is more appropriate 

 to the former than to the latter. Lus Moleas (Threl) — Probably 

 he means " Lus MolachJ' The rough or hairy plant, correspond- 

 ing to the Latin name asperula, or asper, rough. Most of the 

 genus are characterised by whirled leaves, square stems, and 

 margins of leaves prickly; the common goose grass is a good 

 example, but the woodruff is less rough than most of them. The 

 dried plant is very oderiferous, and was formerly used as a 

 diuretic. It ascends in the Highlands to the height of 1200 feet. 



Valerianace^e. 

 Valeriana officinalis — Great wild valerian. Gaelic: an tr\- 

 ihileach (Mackenzie); lus na tr\ bhilean (Armstrong), the three- 



