io3 



Epipactis latifolia — White helleborine. Gaelic: elebor-geal. 1 

 A plant used formerly for making snuff. " The root of hellebor 

 cut in small pieces, the pounder drawne vp into the nose causeth 

 •sneezing, and purgeth the brain from grosse and slimie humors." 

 — Gerard, 1597. This is probably the plant referred to in 

 "Morag," when Macdonald describes the buzzing in his head, for 

 even his nose he had to stop with hellebore, since he parted from 

 her endearments. 



"Mo cheann tha Ian do sheilleanaibh 

 O 'n dheilich mi ri d'bhriodal 

 Mo shron tha stoipt' a dh'elebor, 

 Na deil, le teine dimbis." 



Iridace^e. 



Iris — Signifying, according to Plutarch, the "eye." Canon 

 Bourke maintains "it is derived from hpoi, to settle. And as a 

 name it was by the Pagan priests applied to the imaginary 

 messenger, sent by gods and goddesses to others of their class, to 

 .announce tidings of goodwill. At times they imagined her sent 

 to mortals, as in Homer, to settle matters, or to say they were 

 •destined to be settled. Such was the duty of Iris. Now, amongst 

 Jews and Christians, the rainbow was the harbinger of peace to 

 man, hence it was called 'Iris;' and the circle of blue, grey, or 

 variegated tints around the pupil of the eye is not unlike the 

 rainbow — therefore this circlet was so called by optic scientists, 

 simply because they had no other word; and botanists have, by 

 comparison, applied it to the fleur-de-lis, because it is varied in 

 hue, like the iris of the eye, or the rainbow. Iris does not and 

 did not convey the idea of eye." 



I. pseud-acorus — The yellow flag. Gaelic : bog-uisge — bog, soft, 

 but here a corruption of bogha-uisge, the rainbow. Bir bhogha 

 {O'Reilly), many of the species have beautiful colours, hence the 

 name. Gaelic and Irish : seilisdear, often seileasdear and siolastar. 

 The termination tar, dear, or astar, in these names, means one of 

 a kind, having a settled form or position. One finds this ending 

 common in names of plants — as oleaster, cotoneaster, &c, like 

 "T7]p" in Greek, "fear" in Gaelic. Seil (the first syllable) from 

 sol, the sun ; solus, light ; sol and leus, i.e., lux, light. Greek : 



1 See Helleborus viridis. 



