the roots of other herbs for a particular kind of sore like a boil occurring on
fingers and toes.^37 At least one authority^38 has plumped for quaking-grass
(Briza media) as the solution of the mystery, but that could hardly be con-
sidered a species of mountains. It has been widely overlooked, however, that
one of Ireland’s finest field botanists had fear gorta pointed out to him, in
Tyrone, and found that it was the common Agrostis stolonifera.^39 It does not
necessarily follow, though, that the name has been applied consistently, and
it also remains to be demonstrated that creeping bent is capable of produc-
ing the bodily effects described.
Phleum pratense Linnaeus
timothy
Europe, northern Asia, Algeria; introduced into North America and
elsewhere.
A use ofPhleum pratense recorded from Waterford^40 involved placing a leaf
round a cut on a finger to keep the cloth from adhering to the wound.
Elytrigia repens (Linnaeus) Desvaux ex Nevski
Agropyron repens (Linnaeus) P. Beauverd,Elymus repens
(Linnaeus) Gould
common couch, twitch, squitch-grass, scutch-grass, dog-grass,
foul-grass
Europe, Siberia, North Africa; introduced into North America
Renowned since Classical times for its claimed efficacy against disorders of
the kidney and genitourinary infections, an infusion derived from the bruised
rhizomes ofElytrigia repens enjoyed such sustained popularity for those pur-
poses in learned medicine that it was no doubt from that source that it
acquired its scattered following for them in the folk tradition in the British
Isles, too. There are British records from Essex and Norfolk.^41
Irish records are more widespread: from ‘Ulster’,^42 Cavan,^43 Kilkenny^44
and Waterford.^45
Phragmites australis (Cavanilles) Trinius ex Steudel
P. communis Tr inius
common reed
cosmopolitan
Martin Martin, in the course of his Hebridean travels in 1695, learned of a
cough cure in Lewis in the Outer Hebrides made from boiling together the
roots of reeds and of nettles and leaving the liquid to ferment by adding yeast
to it.^46
324 Agrostis stolonifera