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A shamrock is a young sprig of clover, used as a symbol of Christianity in Ireland. Saint Patrick, Ireland's patron saint, is said to have used it as a metaphor for the Christian Holy Trinity. The name ''shamrock'' comes from Irish ', which is the diminutive of the Irish word for clover (') and means simply ''"little clover"'' or ''"young clover"''.〔Nelson, E. Charles, ''Shamrock: Botany and History of an Irish Myth'', Boethius Press, 1991, ISBN 0-86314-199-4, p 14〕 ''Shamrock'' usually refers to either the species ラテン語:''Trifolium dubium'' (lesser clover, Irish: )〔(Website (Naturegate) showing images of young leaves of lesser trefoil )〕 or ラテン語:''Trifolium repens'' (white clover, Irish: ). However, other three-leaved plants—such as ラテン語:''Medicago lupulina'', ラテン語:''Trifolium pratense'', and ラテン語:''Oxalis acetosella''—are sometimes called shamrocks or clovers. The shamrock was traditionally used for its medicinal properties and was a popular motif in Victorian times. == Botanical species == There is still not a consensus over the precise botanical species of clover that is the "true" shamrock. John Gerard in his herbal of 1597 defined the shamrock as ''Trifolium pratense'' or ''Trifolium pratense flore albo'', meaning Red or White Clover. He described the plant in English as 'Three leaved grasse' or 'Medow Trefoile', 'which are called in Irish ''Shamrockes.〔(Gerard's Herbal 1597 online )〕 The Irish botanist Caleb Threlkeld, writing in 1726 in his work entitled ''Synopsis Stirpium Hibernicarum'' or ''A Treatise on Native Irish Plants'' followed Gerard in identifying the shamrock as ''Trifolium pratense'', calling it White Field Clover.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=NS07 Threlkeld Shamrock | a whole new world )〕 The botanist Karl Linnaeus in his 1737 work ''Flora Lapponica'' identifies the shamrock as ''Trifolium pratense'', mentioning it by name in a Latinised form ''Chambroch'', with the following curious remark: ''Hiberni suo Chambroch, quod est Trifolium pratense purpureum, aluntur, celeres & promtissimi roburis'' (The Irish call it shamrock, which is purple field clover, and which they eat to make them speedy and of nimble strength).〔( Karl Linnaeus Flora Lapponica 1737, p221, No. 273, (Google Books online) )〕〔Nelson, E. Charles, Ibid, 1991, p34〕 Linnaeus based his information that the Irish ate shamrock on the comments of English Elizabethan authors such as Edmund Spencer who remarked that the shamrock used to be eaten by the Irish, especially in times of hardship and famine. It has since been argued however, that the Elizabethans were confused by the similarity between the Irish (Gaelic) name for young clover ''seamróg'', and the name for wood sorrel ''seamsóg''.〔Kelly, Fergus, ''Early Irish Farming'', (2000), Dublin, p 311〕 The situation regarding the identity of the shamrock was further confused by a London botanist James Ebenezer Bicheno, who proclaimed in a dissertation in 1830 that the real shamrock was ''Oxalis acetosella'' or Wood Sorrel.〔(Journal of the Royal Institute of Great Britain 1830 online )〕 Bichino falsely claimed that clover was not a native Irish plant and had only been introduced into Ireland in the middle of the seventeenth century, and based his argument on the same comments by Elizabethan authors that shamrock had been eaten. Bicheno argued that this fitted the wood sorrel better than clover, as wood sorrel was often eaten as a green and used to flavour food. Bicheno's argument has not been generally accepted however, as the weight of evidence favours a species of clover. A more scientific approach was taken by English botanists James Britten and Robert Holland, who stated in their ''Dictionary of English Plant Names'' published in 1878, that their investigations had revealed that ''Trifolium dubium'' was the species sold most frequently in Covent Garden as shamrock on St. Patrick's Day, and that it was worn in at least 13 counties in Ireland.〔(James Britten & Robert Holland, Dictionary of English Plant Names online )〕 Finally, detailed investigations to settle the matter were carried out in two separate botanical surveys in Ireland, one in 1893〔Nathaniel Colgan: 'The Shamrock: an attempt to fix its species' ''The Irish Naturalist: a monthly journal of general Irish natural history'', Vol. 1, No. 5, pp 95–97, August 1892〕〔Nathaniel Colgan: 'The Shamrock: a further attempt to fix its species' ''The Irish Naturalist: a monthly journal of general Irish natural history'', Vol. 2, No. 8, pp 207–211, August 1893〕 and one in 1988.〔Nelson, E. Charles, Ibid, 1991, pp 86–90, 139–144, 153〕 The 1893 survey was carried out by Nathaniel Colgan, an amateur naturalist working as a clerk in Dublin; while the 1988 survey was carried out by E. Charles Nelson, Director of the Irish National Botanic Gardens. Both surveys involved asking people from all across Ireland to send in examples of shamrock, which were then potted up and allowed to flower, so that their botanical species could be identified. The results of both surveys were very similar, showing that the conception of the shamrock in Ireland had changed little in almost a hundred years. The results of the surveys are shown in the table below. The results show that there is no one "true" species of shamrock, but that ''Trifolium dubium'' (Lesser clover) is considered to be the shamrock by roughly half of Irish people, and ''Trifolium repens'' (White clover) by another third, with the remainder split between ''Trifolium pratense'', ''Medicago lupulina'', ''Oxalis acetosella'' and various other species of ''Trifolium'' and ''Oxalis''. None of the species in the survey are unique to Ireland, and all are common European species, so there is no botanical basis for the widespread belief that the shamrock is a unique species of plant that only grows in Ireland. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Shamrock」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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