LILY TRIBE 251 



grooved and pointed ; bulb coated, 1 inch diameter. There are few of our 

 native woods where, in early spring, we could not find the Blue-bells nodding 

 to the wind, often clustering in such multitudes as to tint the spot with their 

 rich colour. In Ajjril and May one might often be reminded of the words 



of Keats : — 



' ' A youngling tree 

 That with a score of light green brethren slioots 

 From the quaint mossiness of aged roots, 

 Round which is lieard a spring-head of clear waters, 

 Ikibbling so wildly of its lovely daughters, 

 The spreading Blue-bells ; it may haply mourn 

 That such fair clusters should be rudely torn 

 From their fresh beds, and scatter'd thoughtlessly 

 By infant hands, left on the jiath to die." 



Our wild flower is the Ilt/acmfhus non-scn'pftis of Linnaeus. Dodonseus 

 says, that Parkinson so called it, "because no other, before himselfe, had 

 written of this sorte " ; but, he adds, that it is generally known in England 

 by the name of Harebel. Gerarde calls it the Blew Harebel, or English 

 Jacinth; and the French still term it Jarinfe des hois. The Hyacinth of the 

 ancients was some liliaceous plant, named from the youth Hyacinthus, fabled 

 by the poet to have been transformed into a flower. The leaves of the Greek 

 Hyacinth bore some marks which Avere imagined to resemble the Greek AI, 

 alas ! And our own early poets often refer to 



" The lettered Hyacinth of darksome hue." 



Thus Drummond says — 



" For aye, 

 Oh Hyacinths, your AI keep still : 

 Nay, with more marks of woe your leaves now fill !" 



and Milton and others echo the strain. 



It was from the absence of these marks that our woodland flower received 

 its earlier scientific name, and the latter one of Agraphis relates to the same 

 circumstance. Its leaves are very green and glossy, and the bells hang from 

 a stalk, often a foot high ; the little bracts of purplish-green colour being 

 at the base of each partial flower-stalk. The bulbous root contains a slimy 

 substance, which, in Queen Elizabeth's time, was used in stiff"ening muslin, in 

 pasting the corners of books, and in fixing feathers to arrows. Every part 

 of the plant possesses a slimy juice. 



Dr. Braun, in his recent work on the " Phenomenon of the Rejuvenes- 

 cence of Nature," remarks, that the greater part of the vegetation which 

 luifolds itself in spring, after winter has passed over it, was already formed 

 in the preceding summer and autumn. He observes that, in autumn even, 

 we find in the terminal and lateral buds of the oak the rudiments of leaves 

 destined for next year; and in the buds of the lilac are found, not only 

 these, but the rich cluster of Ijlossom for the future year, in which hundreds 

 of closely-crowded flowers appear now but as inconspicuous green nodules. 

 In the heart of the tulip-bulb, shielded by succulent leaf-scales, exists in 

 autumn a little greenish-yellow bud. This, the learned author adds, is the 

 tulip-stem for the next year, with all the parts which it elevates from the 

 earth nine months later, namely, two or three leaves, between which lies 



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