BELL-FLOWER TRIBE 199 



old orthography from which it was corrupted a generation ago, when it 

 became the fashion to write it Hairbell. It grows wild on heaths, banks, 

 and braes, and some who saw it nodding on the wind-swept hill thought that 

 for a bell on so slender a stem Hairbell was an appropriate name. But, in 

 truth, its name appears to have been originally suggested by the places it 

 affects in common with the hare. It is throughout Europe a very favourite 

 flower, and is the Clochette of the French, and is called by the Germans either 

 Weiscn-Busch, or Grass-glass. In some English counties it is familiarly called 

 Witches' Thimble. The leaves on the stem are narrow, but the plant derives 

 its specific name from those about the root, which appear in winter and early 

 spring, but wither by July, when the flower is beginning to droop on its 

 stem. It has been said that Linnaeus characterized them by these leaves, 

 having first observed them in winter on the steps of the Upsal University, 

 but the author of that statement has overlooked the fact that the same name 

 was used for the plant by Gerarde two centuries before Linnaeus. 



" On its fair fragile stalk all lightly swaying, 



Trembles the Harebell at each passing breeze, 

 Or bends to earth, if haply, there delaying, 



Seeks its blue depths the velvet-coated bees, 

 Who, charter'd plunderers, unwearied winging 



Their buoyant course from flower to flower, pursue 

 From hour to hour their toils, till laden, bringing 



Home golden treasures with the evening dew." 



Much difference of opinion at one time existed as to whether this is the 

 blue-bell of Scotland, or whether that flower is the wild hyacinth, commonly 

 in England called blue-bell. But few Scotsmen will doubt whether the grace- 

 ful Campanula, so common on their heathery downs, is the flower which they 

 would link with home and country ; though Dodonoeus says, that in his time 

 the wild hyacinth was commonly known by the name of harebell. Modern 

 poets of Scotland all claim the Campanula both as their blue-bell and harebell. 

 AYe have Robert Nicholls saying — 



" I winna bide in your castle halls, 



Nor yet in your lofty towers, — 

 My heart is sick o' your gloomy hanie, 



An' sick o' your darksome bowers ; 

 An' 0, I wish I were far awa' 



Fra their grandeur and their gloom, 

 Where the free-born Untie sings its sang 



On the muu- o' gorse an' broom. 



*' Sae weel as I like the healthfu' gale 



That bla's fu' kindly there, 

 An' the heather brown, an' the wild Blue-belL 



That wave on the muirland bare ; 

 An' the singing birds, an' the humming-bees. 



An' the little lochs that toom 

 Their gushin' burns to the distant sea, 



O'er the muir o' gorse an' broom." 



The graceful azure bell is very abundant on sunny slopes amid short grass 

 until the month of September. 



