Alopecunis — Foxtail-grass Gaelic : fideag—fit, food, refresh - 

 ment. Latin: vita. 



A. geniculates — Gaelic: fideagcham — 



"A' chuiseag dhlreach 's zxifkiteag cham." — Macintyre. 

 .cam, bent, from the knee-like bend in the stalk. A valuable 

 grass for hay and pasture. 



Arundo Phragmites — Reed-grass. Gaelic: seasgan; seasg, a 

 reed. Biorrach-lachan, the common reed. Irish: cruisgiornach, 

 cruisigh, music, song ; from its stem reeds for pipes were manu- 

 factured. Reeds were said by the Greeks to have tended to 

 -subjugate nations by furnishing arrows for war, to soften their 

 manners by means of music, and to lighten their understanding 

 by supplying implements for writing. These modes of employ- 

 ment mark three different stages of civilisation. Welsh: cawn 

 wellt, cane-grass: qwellt, grass. 



Anthoxanthum odoratum — Sweet meadow-grass. Gaelic: 

 mislean, from mills, sweet. 



'"San canach mln geal 's mislean arm." — Macintyre. 

 The soft white cotton-grass and the sweet grass are there. 



Borrach (borradh. scent, smell). — In some places this name is 

 •given to the Nardus stricta, which see. This is the grass that 

 ■gives the peculiar smell to meadow hay. Though common in 

 meadows, it grows nearly to the top of the Grampians (3400 

 feet); hence the names are given as "a species of mountain 

 grass" in some dictionaries. 



Milium effusum — Millet-grass. Gaelic : mileid. Welsh : miled. 

 The name derived from the true millet misapplied. Millet is 

 translated in the Gaelic Bible meanbh pheasair, small peas (see 

 Faba vulgaris). — Ezekiel iv. 9. 



Phleum pratense — Timothy grass, cat's-tail grass. Gaelic : 

 bodan, a little tail; the same name for Typha angustifolia. "This 

 grass was introduced from New York and Carolina in 1780 by 

 Timothy Hanson." — Loudon. It seems to have been unknown 

 in the Hebrides and the Highlands before that date; for Dr. 

 Walker ('Rural Econ. Hebrides,' ii. 27), says "that it may be 

 introduced into the Highlands with good effect." Yet Lightfoot 

 (1777) mentions it as "by the waysides, and in pastures, but not 

 common " Bodan is also applied to P. arenarium and P. alpinum. 



