A Friday Poem (no science involved)

Thanks for the explanation of "Salley." I've often wondered about it. I was just listening to an old recording of Tommy Makem singing this one. He intersperses the singing with reciting A. E. Houseman's "When I was one and twenty."

When I was one-and-twenty
I heard a wise man say
'Give crowns and pounds and guineas
But not your heart away;
Give pearls away and rubies
But keep your fancy free.'
But I was one-and-twenty,
No use to talk to me.

When I was one-and-twenty
I heard him say again,
'The heart out of the bosom
Was never given in vain;
Tis paid with sighs a plenty
And sold for endless rue.'
And I am two-and-twenty,
And oh, 'tis true, 'tis true.

The combination is very effective.

I'd be surprised if salley and sailech were not derived from the latin salix.

The M-W dictionary traces salicylic acid back to the french salicylique and salicin to salix. ASA was originally derived from willow bark.