55 



A. absinthium — Common wormwood. Gaelic : buramaide, 

 Irish borramotor, also burbun {burrais, a worm or caterpillar ; 

 maide, wood) — i.e., wormwood Skeat derives it from waremood, 

 "preserver of the mind, — from its supposed virtues." Searbh luibh, 

 bitter plant. 



" Chuir e air mhisg me le searbh-luibhean." — Stuart. 

 He hath made me drunk with wormwood. 



" Mar a' bhurmaid." 

 Like the wormwood. 



It was formerly used instead of hops to increase the intoxi- 

 cating quality of malt liquor. Roide, gall, bitterness. Grbban, 

 more correctly graban (from Swed. grabba, to grasp). * Welsh : 

 wermod chwerwlys bitter weed. 



A. abrotanum — Southernwood. Gaelic : meath challtuinn. 

 {Meath, Latin mitisfaint, weary, effeminate. Its strong smell 

 is said to prevent faintness and weariness. Calltuiun, from cal, 

 Latin : cala ; Italian, cala ; French : cale, a bay, sea shore, a 

 harbour.) It grows in similar situations to A. maritima. Lus an 

 t-seann duine, the old man's plant, frequently used by old people 

 to keep them awake in church. Irish : surabkan, suramont, and 

 Welsh, siwdrmwt. The sour one {stir, sour), and "southern- 

 wood," also from the same root. Welsh: llysier cryff, ale-wort 

 {cryff, Latin, cervisia, ale), it being sometimes used instead of 

 hops to give a bitter taste to malt liquors. 



Gnaphalium dioicum, G-. sylvaticum — Cudweed. Gaelic : 

 luibh a' chait, the cat's weed. Gnabh, or cnamh lus, the weed that 

 wastes slowly (from yva^aXiov), a word with which Dioscorides 

 describes a plant with white soft leaves, which served the purpose 

 of cotton. This well describes these plants. They have all 

 beautifully soft woolly leaves ; and, on account of the permanence 

 of the form and colour of their dry flowers, are called "Ever- 

 lasting." 



Filago germanica — Common cotton rose. Gaelic and Irish : 

 Hath lus roid, the gall (or wormwood) grey weed. 



1 The occasional occurrence of Gothic roots in plants' names in the Western 

 Highlands and Isles, is accounted for by the conquest of these parts by the 

 Norwegians in the ninth century, and the fact of their rule existing there 

 for at least two centuries under the sway of the Norwegian kings of Man and 

 the Isles. 



