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.
156/186 page 134
![even long before it was known to contain iodine. “ A rod about four, six, or eight feet long, having at the end a blade slit into seven or eight pieces, and about a foot and a half long. I had an account of a young man who lost his appetite and had taken pills to no purpose, and being advised to boil the blade of the Alga, and drink the infusion boiled with butter, was restored to his former state of health.”—Martin’s “Western Isles.” By far the most important use to which this plant and the other fuci have been put was the formation of kelp ; much employment and profit were derived from its manufacture: e.g., in 1812 in the island of North Uist, the clear profit from the proceeds of kelp amounted to ^14,000 ] but the alteration of the law regarding the duty on barilla reduced the value to almost a profitless remuneration of only ^'3500, and now the industry is all but extinct. L. saccharina—Sweet tangle, sea-belt. Gaelic: smeartan (smear, greasy). The Rev. Mr. MacPhail gives this name to “one of the red sea-weeds.” Other correspondents give it to this plant. Milfhearach (O’Donovan).—Sweet tangle, “ a marine weed with a sweet root.” But the name seems the same as Milearach, already mentioned, only it has not a “ sweet root ” like the sea weed. L. bulbosa—Sea furbelows, bulbous-rooted tangle. Gaelic: sgrothach. This name is doubtful (sgroth, pimples, postules). Alaria esculenta—Badderlocks, hen-ware (which may be a contraction of honey-ware, the name by which it is known in the Orkney Islands). Gaelic: mircean (one correspondent gives this name to “a red sea-weed”), seemingly the same as the Norse name Maria kjerne,—Mdri, Mary, and kjerne is our word kernel, and has a like meaning. In Gaelic and Irish dictionaries, muirirean (Armstrong), muiririn (O’Reilly), “a species of edible alga, with long stalks and long narrow leaves.”—Shaw. In some parts of Ireland, Dr. Drummond says, it is called murlins— probably a corruption of muiririn, muirichlinti, muir/inn (MacAlpine), (from muir, tnara, the sea). Manx: mooir/ane. It is known in some parts of Ireland by the name sparain or sporain, purses, because the pinnated leaflets are thought to resemble the Highlander’s sporan. Gruaigean (in Skye). Rhodymenia palmata—Dulse. Gaelic and Irish : duiieasg, from duille, a leaf, and uisge, water—the water-leaf. The High-](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b24879368_0156.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
