The Gaelic names of plants (Scottish, Irish and Manx) / collected and arranged in scientific order, with notes on their etymology, uses, plant superstitions, etc., among the Celts, with copious Gaelic, English, and scientific indices, by John Cameron.
- Cameron, John
- Date:
- 1900
Licence: In copyright
Credit: The Gaelic names of plants (Scottish, Irish and Manx) / collected and arranged in scientific order, with notes on their etymology, uses, plant superstitions, etc., among the Celts, with copious Gaelic, English, and scientific indices, by John Cameron. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![r;6 “No na craobhageanm-chnb cosmhuil r' a gheugaibh.”—Ezekiel xxxi. 8. Nor the chestnut-tree like his branches. Geanrn or gean, natural love, pure love, such as exists between relatives—the tree of chaste love, and cn'o, a nut. The Celts evidently credited this tree with the same virtues as the chaste tree, Vitex agnus castus (Greek, uyvos: and Latin, castus, chaste). Hence the Athenian matrons, in the sacred rites of Ceres, used to strew their couches with its leaves. Castanca is said to be derived from Castana, a town in Pontus, and that the tree is so called because of its abundance there. But the town Castana (Greek, Kao-ravov), was probably so called on account of the virtues of its female population. If so, the English name chest- nut would mean chaste-nut, as it is in the Gaelic. Welsh: castan (from Latin, caste), chastely, modestly. The chestnut tree of Scripture is now supposed to be Platanus orientalis, the Chenar plane-tree. [JEsculus hippocastanum—The horse-chestnut. Gaelic • geanrn chno fhiadhaich (Fergusson). Belongs to the order Aceracece. Was introduced to Scotland in 1709.] Populus alba—Poplar. Gaelic: craobhphobuill. Irish : poibleag. German: pappel. Welsh and Armoric: pohl. Latin: populus. This name has an Asiatic origin, and became a common name to all Europe through the Aryan race from the East.1 Pictet explains it thus—-“ Ce nom est sans doute une reduplication de la racine Sanscrit pul, magnum, altum.” Pul pul, great, great, or big, big, as in the Hebrew construction, very big. We still say in Gaelic vibr, mor, big, big, for very big. Pul pul is the Persian for popular, and pullah for salix. This tree is quite common in Persia and Asia Minor, hence it was as well known there as in Europe. The name has become associated with populus, the people, by the fact that the streets of ancient Rome were deco- rated with rows of this tree, whence the name Arbor populi. Again, it is asserted that the name is derived from the constant movement of the leaves, which are in perpetual motion, like the populace—“fickle, like the multitude, that are accursed.” Populus —palpulus, from palpitare, to tremble (Skeat). 1 See Canon Bourke’s work on “The Aryan Origin of the Gaelic Race and Language.” London : Longman.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b24879368_0118.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
