lxx PROCEEDINGS—PERTHSHIRE SOCIETY OF NATURAL SCIENCE. 
In the address which I gave at the opening of this session I threw 
out the suggestion that possibly it might be advisable to add archae¬ 
ology—at least, in its prehistoric aspect—to the objects of our Society. 
More recently the Rev. Dr. Milroy, in the excellent paper which he 
gave us in January, suggested the addition of anthropology. In my 
address to-night I purpose taking up a subject which exhibits a com¬ 
bination of anthropology and botany—that is to say, an inquiry into 
what may be learnt of the nature, manners, customs, and train-of 
thought of the ancient inhabitants of the Highland part of this 
country, from the names which they bestowed on and the uses to 
which they put the native plants. 
As I will attempt to show, a considerable amount of information 
regarding the mode of life and the manners and customs of the old 
Highlanders may be derived from the study of the Gaelic names of 
plants. The names show clearly, not only the character of the indi¬ 
vidual man, and the circumstances and environment in which he lived, 
but demonstrate also the progress of the people from heathendom to 
Christianity, and from ignorance to knowledge. We can learn 
that the old Celt had eyes and knew how to use them— i.e. in the true 
scientific sense—far better than many of his modern descendants— 
that life for him was not all “cakes and ale,” but that there were times 
of scarcity and times of plenteousness, and that he had to depend in 
a great measure on the resources of his own country. We can learn, 
further, what ailments he was liable to, what were his pleasures, and in 
what consisted his riches, his virtues and his vices, and the bent of 
his mind towards the supernatural. 
Before, however, proceeding to discuss the names which I have 
selected to illustrate my argument, it will be expedient to indicate 
briefly the sources whence our knowledge of the old names have been 
derived. 
The earliest botanical list of names appears in the first book which 
was devoted to a scientific account of the plants of Scotland, namely, 
Lightfoot’s Flora Scotica. 
It is rather humiliating to think that this work was undertaken by 
an Englishman and not a native of Scotland. Lightfoot was an English 
clergyman, who, in 1772, joined the traveller Pennant in his second 
tour in Scotland. At Killin (probably) he met a Scottish minister, 
Mr. Stuart, to whom, he says, “ I am indebted for every assistance 
that ingenuity and friendship could yield. This young gentleman, a 
most accurate observer of Nature’s works, critically versed in the Erse 
language, and the manners and customs of his country, I had the good 
fortune to have as a companion and fellow-traveller through the 
Highlands and Hebrides; and to him I am obliged for a great por¬ 
tion of the Highland botany, for many of the medical and <zco?iom- 
ical , and all the superstitious uses of plants, which are interspersed 
in this work, and to him I owe the supply of their Erse or Gaulic 
names.” 
John Stuart, it may be mentioned, was the eldest son of the Rev. 
James Stuart, who was minister of Killin from 1737 to 1796, and was 
a man of great erudition. By him (i.e. , the father) the New Testament 
was first translated into Gaelic in 1767, a second edition being brought 
