us 



pared by manual labour (Greek, jSpaxum ; Latin, brachium; 

 "Gaelic, braic; French, bras, the arm). 



S. csespitosus — Tufted scirpus, deer's hair, heath club-rush. 

 Gaelic: dob, cipe, and dob ceann-dubh (dob — x'/^ os / Latin, 

 cibus, food; ceann, head; dubh, black. 



" Le'n cridheacha' meara 

 Le bainne na cloba." — Macintyke. 

 Irish: ciabh, a lock of hair. Ciabh-ceann-dubh. This is the 

 principal food of cattle and sheep in the Highlands in March, and 

 till the end of May. Cruach luachair — cruach, a heap, a pile, a 

 hill, and luachair, a rush. 



The badge of the Clan Mackenzie. 



S. lacustris — Bulrush, lake-scirput. Gaelic: luachair-ghobhlach 

 the forked rush (gobhal, a fork), from the forked or branched 

 appearance of the cymes appearing from the top of tall, terete 

 (or nearly so), leafless stems When this tall stem is cut, it 

 goes by the name of cuilc, 1 a cane, and is used to bottom chairs. 

 Irish: gibiun — gib or giob, rough, and twin, a rush. Gaelic and 

 Irish: bog mhuine, boigean, bog luachair, bog, 2 a marsh, a fen, 

 swampy ground, to bob, to wag — names indicating its habitat, 

 also its top-heavy appearance, causing it to have a bobbing or 

 wagging motion. Curcais (curach, a marsh, a fen), is more a 

 generic term, and equals scirpus. Min-fheur, a bulrush. (See 

 Festuca ovina.) 



Eriopborum (from Ipiov, wool, and 4>epta, to bear). Its seeds are 

 covered with a woolly substance — hence it is called cotton-grass. 



E. vaginatum and E. polystachyon — Cotton-sedge. Scotch : 

 cafs-tail. Gaelic and Irish : canach. Irish : cona (from can, white), 

 from its hypogynous bristles forming dense tufts of white cottony 

 down, making the plant very conspicuous in peaty bogs. The 

 canach in its purity and whiteness formed the object of comparison 

 in Gaelic poetry for purity, fair complexion, &c, especially in 



Jove-songs : — 



" Do chneas mar an canach 

 Cho ceanalta tlath." — Macintyrb. 

 Thy skin white as the cotton-grass 

 So tender and gentle. 



1 " Mu lofihan nan cuilc a tha ruadh." — Tighmora. 



2 Bog and bolg are frequently interchanged— bolg luachair, prominent or 

 massy rush. 



