been some
sentimental intention in putting forward the humble, abundant,
down-trodden dwarf-clover, the very sod itself of Ireland (really
introduced from England) as "the shamrock!" But, as often happens in
such cases, truth and the ancient and honourable tradition of a
beautiful thing have been wantonly disregarded in order to do business
in cheap sentiment. Traders are always ready to take advantage of an
ignorant public. Common sprats are called "sardines," the name of
another and rarer fish, in order to conceal the fact that they are
sprats; clarified horse fat is called "fresh country butter," and
Irish regiments are made to decorate themselves with common clover
under the delusion that it is the shamrock. Other plants have been
from time to time utilised to usurp the title of "shamrock." Thus the
small Lucerne clover or medicago is often sold as "shamrock" to Irish
patriots, and the watercress has been solemnly pat forward as the true
shamrock simply because old writers tell us, as evidence of the
barbarous state of the Irish, that they fed upon shamrocks and
watercress. The true shamrock (the wood-sorrel) was formerly greatly
valued all over Europe as a salad and a flavouring herb on account of
its leaves containing oxalic acid. It was used for the manufacture of
oxalic acid, which was sold as "salts of lemons" for removing
iron-mould. It was the basis of the soup and of the green sauce for
fish, in which the dock-sorrel (Rumex) has now taken its place. The
name "shamrock" is an old Irish word, written "seamragg," and means a
little "trefoil." Curiously enough there appears to be an Oriental
word, "shamrakh," which I am told is of Arabic origin, and also means
a trefoil. In English writers from the seventeenth century onwards the
Irish shamrock is variously written of as "shamroots," "shamerags"
(this and the next following with hostile intent), "shame-rogues,"
"sham-brogues," and "sham-rug."

I am sorry to say that Shakespeare does not mention the shamrock at
all. No Irishman who knows the little oxalis or wood-sorrel could wish
for a more beautiful floral emblem of the Emerald Isle, or dream of
letting the vulgar Saxon intruder--the dwarf clover--take its place.
Perhaps it is the Ulstermen who have set up the foreign "Dutch" clover
to replace the true shamrock, the wood-sorrel. These changes are
easily made. For instance, "green" is not the original colour of
Ireland, but light blue--Cambridge blue!