A Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue (up to 1700)
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First published 1963 (DOST Vol. III).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.
Lane-, Lene-onion, n. [Gael. lèan, lèana, Ir. léana meadow, swampy plain, and onion (Gael. uinnean, Ir. uinniun): cf. mod. Cumberland and Ir. dial. bog-onion in the same sense.] The royal fern. —1684 Symson Descr. Galloway 78.
Also the true osmunda regalis, or filix Florida, many horse-loads whereof are growing in the CaumFoord, neer the Loch of Longcastle, in this parish of Kirkinner; this plant the countrey people call the lane-onion, or, as they pronounce it, the lene-onion; the word lene, in their dialect, importing a soft, grassie meadow ground
