CAMPANULA. VACCINIXJM. 135 



" 'Mid ruins tumbling to decay, 

 Thy flowers their heavenly hues display. 



Still freshly springing, 

 Where pride and pomp have pass'd away 

 On mossy tomb and turret gray. 

 Like friendship clinging. 

 ***** 



" But most I love thine azure braid. 

 When softer flowers are all decay'd. 



And thou appearest 

 Stealing beneath the hedgerow shade. 

 Like joj's that linger as they fade, 



Whose last are deai'est. 



" Thou art the flower of memory ; 

 The pensive soul recalls in thee 



The year's past pleasures ; 

 And, led by kindred thought, will flee. 

 Till, back to careless infancy. 



The path she measures." 



The flowers vary in the intensity of their colour, and are occa-^ 

 sionally pure white. — Our children have a custom of blowing into 

 the flower bell ; and then, placing it erect on the back of one hand, 

 they make it crack by a smart stroke with the other. — 



358. Vaccinium myrtillus. ?3laeft«-rp. (Hurtberries. See 

 Fuller's Worthies, i. p. 396.) — On heaths 



" Where the 33Iac--6tTrtC^ grow 

 'Mang the bonnie bloomin' heather ; " 



and in woods. In the latter station the plant may be frequently ob- 

 served growing vigorously under the shade of trees where scarcely 

 another will vegetate. The Blaeberry, also, makes a large proportion of 

 the vegetation which covers our higher hills. On the 8th Sept. 1852, 

 I cut a sod, about four inches square, from near the summit of the 

 easternmost of the Eildons, and I found it to contain the following 

 plants only ; viz, Vaccinium myrtillus, Festuca ovina, Dicranum 

 scoparium, Cenomyce rangiferina, Hypnumpurum, H. Schreberi, H. 

 splendens, Galium saxatile, and Tormentilla officinalis. 



Boys who love to rove "the bushy brakes and glens among," eat 

 the flowers in anticipation of the fruit. When this is ripe, parties of 

 pleasure are sometimes made to go a gathering of it. Boiled in milk, 

 and seasoned with sugar, the juicy berries form a dish which is, on 

 the whole, a poor one. They are more agreeable when eaten as pulled 

 from the shrub, especially when this grows on a sunny brae. There" 

 is a current belief that a good crop comes only every alternate year. 

 The flowers are much frequented by ants. 



350. V. VITIS-ID.EA. Mountain heaths. B. Banks of the 

 Whiteadder near Abbey St. Bathans ; and about the top of Dir- 

 rington Law, Rev. Thos. Brown. N. Higher parts of Cheviot, and 

 of Hedge-hope. Hepburn Hill at Chillingham. June-July. 



