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There are two varieties of the olive tree. The wild olive is a 

 low spiny tree, the branches of which were grafted on the culti- 

 vated olive. It is the one alluded to in Romans xi. 17. "Agus 

 ma tha cuid do na geugaibh air am briseadh dheth, agus gu bheil 

 thusa, a bha a'd' chrann oladh fiadhaich, air do shuidheachadh 

 'nam measg ; agus maille riu a' faotinn comhpairt do fhreimh agus 

 do reamhrachd a' chroinn-oladh." (And if some of the branches be 

 broken off, and thou, being a wild olive tree, wert grafted in 

 among them, and with them partakest of the root and fatness of 

 the olive tree). 



Syringa vulgaris — Lilac-tree. Gaelic : craobh liath ghorm. 

 Manx: yn villey lay lac, the lilac tree. 



Ligustnun vulgare — Privet. Gaelic : ras chrann slor uaine, the 

 evergreen shrubbery-tree. Priobaid (M. 'Donald). Irish : priobhadh, 

 formed from "privet" probably named from being formally cut or 

 trimmed. (Skeat). 



Fraxinus excelsior — Ash. Gaelic and Irish : craobh uinns- 

 eann. Irish : uinseann, uimhseann, altered into fuinse, fuinseann, 

 fuinsebg 



" Gabhaidh an t-uinnseann as an allt 

 'S a' challtuinn as a' phreas." — Proverb. 

 The ash will kindle out of the burn, 

 And the hazel out of the bush. 



Welsh: onen, onwydden, corresponding to another Irish name, 

 nion. Gaelic : nuin, and also oinseann. Manx : unjin, nion. 

 The names refer principally to the wood, and the primary idea 

 seems to be lasting, long- continuing, on (in Welsh), that which is 

 in continuity. Nuin, also the letter N of the Gaelic alphabet. 

 Fuinnseann (see Circcea), may have been suggested by its 

 frequent use in the charms and enchantments so common in 

 olden times, especially against the bites of serpents, and the 

 influence of the "Old Serpent.'' Pennant, in 1772, mentions: 

 "In many parts of the Highlands, at the birth of a child, the 

 nurse puts the end of a green stick of ash into the fire, and 

 while it is burning, receives into a spoon the sap or juice which 

 oozes out at the other end, and administers this to the new-born 

 babe." Serpents were supposed to have a special horror of its 

 leaves. 



