The Fairmont West Virginian. (Fairmont, W. Va.) 1904-1914, 1905-01-03
THE SHAMROCK.
Al one Time 1t Was Used ms a Eoed
IN the Emerald Isle. 4

In the Emerald Isle.
There are few plants, IL any. that
are as closely associated in the peo-
pies mind with any one nation In par
ticuiar as is the little Irish shamrock
with the joys and SORROWS OF the En-
erald Isle. In the ancient literature of
Erin the word occurs yariously as
seamsog, seamrog, seamroge, sham
rote, shanrocke shamroke, sliamrogh
or sllamroote, shamrug, shamroge,
seamaroge and chambroch. The word
shamrock is Erse, being derived
from seamrog, compound of seaman,
meaning trefoii, and og, httle--little
clover. Seaman is supposed to be the
same as sumar, obtained from the Gel
tic name of the clover-visumarus As
to the plant itself. 1t is generally CON
sidered that the true shamrock Is ell
Their the black nonesuch or the Dutch
clover, with a decided preference for
the first named, on no less an authori-
ty than the curator of the Dublin Bo-
tanic gardens and other competent
persons. There are, however, some
who hold that Trlfolium repens or Tri-
folium minus is the true shamrock,
and this opinion emanates from eS-
perts in the agricultural department at
Washington. Other writers have
adopted the fancy of Bicheno, who adj
yocated the right of the wood sorrel
to this honor. This last belief may
have arisen from the appearance OF
the word seamsoge, meaning wood sor-
| rel. in old Irish writings, referring to
the shamrock, but by those competent
to judge this is thought to be a mis-
print. the word seamroge, slgnifying
meadow trefoil, having been meant.
The earliest references to the sham
rock in Irish literature deal With it as
a food plant. Campion in his Historic
of Ireland" dated 1911, says in speak
| ing of the food of the common people,
| "Shamrotes, water crosses and other
berbes they feed upon; oatmele and
| butter they cram together" Matthias
| Lobel, the Flemish botauist, who pub
lished his 'Stirpium Adversarla Nova"
IN 1870, appears to be the first botan-
ical writer to mention the plant. He
enumerates the purple and the white
| trerotl and says of the latter. ut is
stated to be good for fattening cattle"
| adding that the Irish grind the flowers
| and leaves into Il meal, which they
| knead with butter and thrust into
! their grooming bellies when 1t some
| times happens they are veSed and
| nigh maddened with three days hun
GER
Edmund Speuser in 1895 also tells OF
| the Irish people feeding on sham
| rokcs'' or water crosses when reduced
to starvation during the Munster
wars In the Itinerary" of Fyhes
Moryson,, written In 1890, this passage
occurs in a description of the Irish:
| They willingly eat the herbe sham
rookie, being of sharp taste, which as
they run and are chased to and fro
| they snatch like beasts out of the
| dftcnes" This statement has given
rise to the belief that the water cress
! was the shamrock, although some have
| identified Moryson's "sllamrocke" with
| the wood sorrel, Oxalls acetosella, n
| trlfoliate plant with acid juice which
| grows abundantly in Irish woodlands.
| The shamrock food of the Irish was
supplied to make them strong and
| swift or foot I. Mundy refers to this
| fact in work written by him in 1850.
| The nourlshing qualities of the food
are also cleaned from the statement of
the Earl of Antrim during the siege OF
Munster by the Earl of Argyll, to the
| effect that as long rs shamrocks were
available no apprehension regarding
the food supply need exist About
1872 the shamrock as an article of food
| in Ireland was supplanted by the pc
tato.--New York Tribune. - 49,
I