Blair Collection > Gaelic names of plants (Scottish, Irish, and Manx)

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" loosestrife " is a translation. Irish : brcailaii leana. Breal, a
knob, a gland. It was employed as a remedy for glandular
diseases, or from the appearance of the plant when in seed.
Brea/lan means also a vessel. The capsule is enclosed in the
tube of the calyx, as if it were in a vessel. Lean, a swamp.
Generally growing in watery places.
Halorage.í:.
Myriophyllum spicatum and alterniflorum. — Water- milfoil.
Gaelic and Irish : siiaithe bhatheadh (from snaith, a thread, a
filament; and bath, drown), the drowned thread.
Grossulariace/e.
Ribes, said to be the name of an acid plant. {Rheum libes,
mentioned by the Arabian physicians, a different plant). More
probably from the Celtic riob, rib, or reub, to ensnare or en-
tangle, to tear — many of the species being prickly. Latin : idbes.
Gaelic : spiontag, currant, gooseberry. Irish : spiontog, spin.
Latin : spina, a thorn ; also spion, pull, pluck, tear away. Welsh :
yspinem.
Ribes nigrum — Black currant. Gaelic : j-aosar diibh, the black
currant. Raosar (Scotch, rizzar — from French, raisin ; Welsh,
rhyfion ; Old English, raisin tree), for red currant.
R. rubrum — Red or white currants. Gaelic : raosar dearg or
gea/, red or white currants ; dcarc frangach, French berry.
R. grossularia — Gooseberry-bush. Gaelic : preas ghrosaid
(written also groscag, grosaid), the gooseberry — from grossulus,
diminutive of grossus, an unripe fig, — " so called because its
berries resemble little half-ripe ^^?,, grossi" (Loudon). French :
groscille. Welsh : grwysen. Scotch : grozet, graze/.
" Suthan-lair's falle ghroseideaii." — M'Intyre.
Wild strawberry and the odour of gooseberries.
CRASSULACE.E.
(From Latin, erassi/s, thick — in reference to the fleshy leaves and
stem. Gaelic : crasag, corpulent.)
Sedum rhodiola — Rose-root. Gaelic and Irish : ius nan laoch,
the heroes' plant ; laoch, from the Irish, meaning a hero, a cham-
pion, a term of approbation for a young man.
The badge of the Clan Gunn.
S. acre — Stonecrop, wall-pepper. Gaelic and Irish : grafan
nan cJach, the stone's pickaxe. Welsh : flyddarlys, prick madam.