152 JOURNAL OF THE PLYMOUTH INSTITUTION. 
common amongst the inhabitants of the valley of the river Slaney, 
in the county of Wexford." 
Mr. G. Creed writes as follows in the same journal, 1st s., iv. 
273 : — "Lightfoot, in his Flora Scotica, vol. ii., p. 642, says 'That 
in many parts of Scotland (the Highlands), at the birth of a child 
the nurse or midwife puts one end of a great stick of the ash tree 
into the fire, and whilst it is burning receives into a spoon the sap 
or juice which oozes out at the other end, and administers this as 
the first spoonful of liquor to the new-born babe.' Phillips' Silva 
Flora. Why]" 
Aberdoniensis, responding to Mr. Creed's query (1st s. iv., 380), 
says, "The reason ... is, first, because it acts as a powerful as- 
tringent ; and secondly, because the ash, in common with the 
rowan, is supposed to possess the property of resisting the attacks 
of witches, fairies, and other imps of darkness. Without some 
precaution of this kind they would change the child, or possibly 
steal it away altogether. . . ." 
Dr. W. Withering, f.r.s., in his Systematic Arrangement of 
British Plants, Sec, 5th ed., 4 vols., first note, vol. ii., p. 84, 
Birmingham, 1812, when speaking of the Ash, says, "An infusion 
of the leaves, from half an ounce to an ounce and a half, is a very 
good purge, and a decoction of two drams of the bark, or six 
drams of the leaves, has been used to cure agues. The seeds are 
acrid and bitter." 
Pliny (op. cit., pp. 184-5), Second Tome, The foure and twenti- 
eth Booke, Chap, viii., says, "As touching the Ash ... it beareth 
a seed enclosed within certain cods, which, being taken in wine, is 
an ordinary remedy for the obstructions and infirmities of the liuer ; 
as also for the pain in the sides. The same also do euacuat the 
aquosities or waterish humors spread between the skinne and the 
flesh in the dropsie Leucophlegmatia ; the leaves do take down by 
little and little, and make lean a body ouer-grosse, and do ease it 
of the troublesome cariage that it hath of so much fat, if the same 
be stamped and giuen in wine. But herein good regard ought to be 
had of the strength of the party after this proportion : If it be a 
child, hue leaues of the ash are sufficient to be infused in three cyaths 
of wine ; but elder folk, and of a stronger complexion, may abide 
