The
Shamrock : A Further attempt to fix its species
by
Nathaniel Colgan
published
in the Irish Naturalist 1893
Counties
which use the different species
Out
of a total of forty-nine certified Shamrocks grown on the two occasions,
twenty-four proved to be Trifolium repens, and twenty-one Trifolium
minus, the remainder being equally divided between Trifolium
pratense and Medicago lupulina. Arranging the Shamrocks
by counties so as to exhibit the area over which :the use of the different
species was found to prevail, we have the following:-
Trifolium
repens is used in:
Armagh ; Carlow ; Cork ; Derry ; Dublin ; Galway ; Waterford ; Wicklow
; Antrim ; Tyrone ; Kerry ; Donegal ; Meath ; Sligo ; Roscommon and
Mayo
Trifolium
minus is used in:
Armagh ; Carlow ; Cork ; Derry ; Dublin ; Galway ; Waterford ; Wicklow
; Clare ; Louth ; Tipperary ; Queen's C., (Laois) and Waterford
Trifolium
pratense is used in:
Waterford & Wicklow
Medicago
lupulina is used in
Cork and Dublin
Here
again the employment of T. repens as the national badge would
appear to be more extended than that of T. minus, the former
being used in sixteen, the latter only in thirteen of the Irish counties.
But there is further evidence forthcoming on the side of T. minus;
for Mr. James Britten, editor of the Journal of Botany,
gives the following strong testimony in its favour, in a valuable
note on the Shamrock in the Dictionary of English. Plant Names (p.
425). (Published by Trubner & Co., (for the English Dialect Society),
London, 1886.)
"At the present day(1886), Trifolium minus is the plant
most in repute as the true Shamrock; it is this species which forms
most of the Shamrock sold in Covent Garden on St. Patrick's Day, and
in Ireland it is used as such in the counties of Antrim, Down, Meath,
Fermanagh, Dublin, Wicklow, Carlow, Westme1ith, Wexford, Limerick,
Waterford, Cork, and Kerry."
When
entering on this inquiry some five years ago, I was quite unaware
of the existence of this interesting contribution to the subject,
which only came under my notice so late as the April of this year.
Had I known of these previous researches. by which the results recorded
in these pages were so largely anticipated, I should probably have
thought it unnecessary to make further investigation, so that my ignorance
of Mr. Britten's paper has had the result of strengthening the case
for Trifolium minus, which, as I believe, he was the
first to make out. Though Mr. Britten does not tell us that Trifolium
minus is exclusively used as the Shamrock in the thirteen counties
covered by his inquiry, the evidence he has brought forward, coupled
with that given in these pages, fully warrants, in my opinion, the
conclusion that Trifolium repens can no longer
claim pre-eminence as the true Irish Shamrock.' It must hereafter
be content to share the honour, at least evenly, with its rival
Trifolium minus. Future writers and editors of English
and Irish Floras, if they aim at accuracy in their popular plant-names,
must bracket these two species of Trifolium under the name Shamrock
and must give, too, to Mr. Britten the credit of having
been the first to clearly discern and boldly advocate the strong claims
of Trifolium minus.
While
conceding that in the present day the neater Trifolium minus
is equally in favour with Trifolium repens as our national
badge, some may be disposed to argue that the true Shamrock of earlier
times, before modern culture had spread abroad a taste for the elegant
and the delicate, was, nevertheless, the coarser Trifolium repens.
The fact that a decided majority of the specimens collected by me
from the Irish-speaking districts of our island, where old national
usages may be assumed to have the greatest tenacity of existence,
belonged to this latter species, might be taken as lending a certain
support to this view. But the discussion of such antiquarian aspects
of the question, how-ever fascinating it might be as opening up wide
fields of speculation and inquiry, cannot properly find a place in
the pages of a natural history Journal. I must content myself, then,
with this endeavour to place clearly before those interested in the
subject the available evidence as to the species of the modern Shamrock,
leaving it to others, who may feel dissatisfied with the mass and
tendency of this evidence, to pursue the inquiry still further on
the lines laid down
Authors
Notes:
Page 208: Contributers of 'Shamrock'I wish to express
my thanks here to the following correspondents for their kindness
in sending specimens from their respective districts:- Rev.T. O'Connor,
Kilrosanty, Waterford(three plants); Rev;T. McGrath, Clogheen, Tipperary;
Rev. P. MacPhilpin, Aranmore, Galway bay; Rev. P. Brennan, Corrigaholt,Clare;
Rev. P. O'Keane, Easky, Sligo; Rev. P. Kelly, Ardara, Donegal (two
plants); Mr. Michael Costello, Inisheer, Galway bay (two plants);
Miss A. N.Abbott, Cork (three plants); Mrs. Delap, Valencia island,
Kerry; Miss Garner, Dublin; Miss Rinahan, Dublin (plant from Ramelton,
Donegal); Mrs. Leebody, Londonderry(four plants from counties Donegal,
Derry, and Tyrone); Mr. A. J. Collins, Belfast; Mr. M. Comerford,
Dundalk; Mr.T. Hunter, Ovoca, Wicklow(five plants); Mr. Owen Smith,
Meath; and Mr. J, J. Wolfe, Skibbereen, Cork.
Page
209: In the earlier stages of growth, the mucro to the leaflets
of Medicago lupulina seems to me to afford the safest and readiest
distinction between that species and T. minus and T. repens. There
is little difficulty at any. stage in separating T. pratense from
the three other competitors.
Page
210: All who are interested in the obscure history of the Shamrock
are strongly recommended to read Mr. Britten's note, which gives in
condensed form, the fruit of much antiquarian research
Page
211 There is no reason why the name should not be written 'shamroge',
as it
is pronounced by Irishmen, and written by many of the earlier English
writers.
Taken
together, Mr. Britten's inquiry and my own have covered twenty-five
out of thirty-two Irish counties. The following counties still remain
outside the inquiry:-Cavan, Kildare, Kilkenny, King's County, Leitrim,
Longford, and Monaghan.
