306 Leucanthemum vulgare
to wounds as well.^336 The Gaelic name has been interpreted as implying a one-
time widespread use for scrofula,^337 though that is perhaps questionable.
In Ireland the boiled juice has similarly been applied for coughs, more
especially tubercular ones, in the Aran Islands in the remoteness of Galway
Bay, where this species was looked upon as the ‘female’ version of chamo-
mile (Chamaemelum nobile).^338 Both there and in Limerick^339 sore eyes were
also bathed with the cooled boiled juice. In Tyrone and Monaghan, on the
other hand, a tea formerly much drunk there (to ward off a chill) was made
from an infusion of the ray florets.^340
Matricaria discoidea de Candolle
M. matricaroides (Lessing) Porter, in part;M. suaveolens (Pursh)
Buchenau
pineapple weed
north-eastern Asia; introduced into Europe, North and South
America, Australasia
Under the Welsh name pe-felen, Matricaria discoidea is on record as used in
Caernarvonshire some time before World War II for a leaf poultice in a case
of severe boils on the neck (which it was seemingly successful in clearing
up).^341 As this alien is not known to have reached the British Isles before
1869—though for long now a common weed of barish places—this is a rare
instance of a folk use of demonstrably recent origin. The species was pre-
sumably standing in for Chamaemelum nobile,which is recorded from several
counties, one of them Welsh, as the source of an ointment for boils.
Senecio aquaticus Hill
water ragwort;buachalán(Ireland)
western and central Europe; introduced into New Zealand
Senecio jacobaea Linnaeus
ragwort, ragweed;buachalán(Ireland)
Europe, western Asia, North Africa; introduced into North America,
Australasia
Unexpectedly, ragwort emerges from the folk records as almost wholly an
Irish herb. BothSenecio aquaticusandS. jacobaeaoccur there in abundance
and hybridise with each other so extensively that it is surprising that in Tip-
perary what is manifestlyS. aquaticusfrom the habitat description has
acquired a name of its own in Irish Gaelic (translating as ‘fisherman’s rag-
wort’)and been preferred toS. jacobaeaat least for use on cuts.^342 That dif-