twisted or knotted, from kars, rough (Macbain). Scotch: yarr. 

 Irish : cabrois — cab, a head ; rois, polished. Manx : carran. 

 " Gun deanntag, gun charran " — Macdonald. 

 Without nettle or spurrey. 



Arenaria alsine — Sandwort. Gaelic : flige, perhaps from flige, 

 water, growing in watery or sandy places. 



Stellaria media — Chickweed. Gaelic: fliodh, an excrescence 

 (Armstrong), sometimes written fluth. Irish : lia, wetting (Gaelic: 

 fluich, wet); compare also flock, soft (Latin : flaaus). Welsh: 

 _gw/ydd, the soft or tender plant. Manx: flig. 



S. holostea — The greater stitchwort. Gaelic: tiiirseach, sad. 

 dejected. Irish: titrsarrain, the same meaning; and Stellaria 

 graminea, fiirsarranin, the lesser stitchwort. Welsh: y wenn- 

 w/ydd, the fair soft stemmed plant, from gwenn and gw'ydd, soft 

 tender stem. 



Cherleria sedoides — Mossy cyphel, found plentifully on Ben 

 Lawers. No Gaelic name, but sebrsa cbinich, a kind of moss. 



Cerastium alpinum — Mouse-eared chickweed. Gaelic: cluas 

 .an luch, mouse-ear. 



LINACEjE. 



Lirmrn usitatissimum — Flax. Gaelic: lion, gen. singular, lin. 

 Welsh: //in, "Greek Xivov and Latin linum, a thread, are derived 

 from the Celtic." — Loudon. 



" Iarraidh i olann agus lion," — Stuart (Job). 

 She will desire wool and flax. 



" Meirle salainn 's meirle frois, 

 Meirl' o nach fhaigh anam clos ; 

 Gus an teid an t-iasg air tir, 

 Cha 'n fhaigh meirleach an lin clos." 



"This illustrates the great value attached to salt and lint, 

 -especially among a fishing population, at a time when the duty on 



-salt was excessive, and lint was cultivated in the Hebrides." 



Sheriff Nicolson. 



L. catharticum— Fairy flax. Gaelic: /Ion na mna sith, fairy 

 woman's flax; miosach, monthly, from a medicinal virtue it was 

 supposed to possess ; mionach, bowels ; /us cao/ach, slender weed ; 

 ■compare also cao/an, intestine (Latin: colon, the large intestine). 

 Both names probably allude to its cathartic effects. Stuart, in 

 Lightfoot's "Flora," gives these names in a combined form an 



