86 



Polygonum bistorta — Bistort, snakeweed. Gaelic and Irish: 

 bilur (O'Reilly). Seems to mean the same as biolair, a water- 

 cress. The young shoots were formerly eaten. Welsh : lysiau'r 

 neidr, adder's plant. Manx : Bossan ardnieu, snakeweed. 



P. amphibium — Amphibious persicaria. Gaelic and Irish: 

 gliiineach an uisge, the water-kneed plant. It is often floating in 

 water. Gliiineach dkearg, the red-kneed plant. Its spikes of 

 flowers are rose-coloured and handsome. Armstrong gives this 

 name to P. convolvulus, which is evidently wrong. 



P. aviculare — Knot-grass. Gaelic and Irish : gliiineach bheag 

 (O'Reilly), the small-jointed plant. There is another plant of this 

 family very common on the hills and greedily eaten by cattle, 

 much jointed, and with little red bulbs on the stem (P. viviparum). 

 Altanach occurs as the name of "a mountain or moss grass.'' 

 (This is not a grass, yet "grass" is sometimes applied to plants 

 that are not grass, i.e. — knot grass, grass of Parnassus, etc.) The 

 probabilities are strongly in favour of this being the plant so 

 named. Altanach, the jointed one (alt, a joint). 



P. convolvulus — Climbing persicaria; black bindweed; climbing 

 buckwheat. Gaelic and Irish : glicineach dhubh, the dark-jointed 

 plant. 



P. persicaria — The spotted persicaria. Gaelic and Irish : 

 gliiineach mhbr, the large-jointed plant. Am boinne-fola (Fer- 

 gusson), the blood spot. Lus chrann-ceusaidh (Maclellan), herb of 

 the tree (of) crucifixion. The legend being that this plant grew at 

 the foot of the Cross, and drops of blood fell on the leaves, and 

 so they are to this day spotted. 



P. hydropiper — Water - pepper. Gaelic : lus an fhbgair 

 (Mackenzie), the plant that drives, expels, or banishes. It had the 

 reputation of driving away pain, flies, etc. "If a good handful of 

 the hot biting arssmart be put under the horse's saddle, it will 

 make him travel the better though he were half -tired before." — 

 Culpepper. Gliiineach teth, the hot-kneed plant. Manx : glioon- 

 agh, the kneed or jointed one. 



Eumex obtusifolius \ 



„ crispus V — Dock. Gaelic and Irish : copag — 



„ conglomeratus J 

 copagach, copach, bossy. Welsh : copa-, tuft, a top. Manx : capag. 

 Roots used for making black dye. 



