86 THE WILD HYACINTH. 



Milton says — 



" I know each lane, and every alley green, 

 Dingle, or bushy dell of this wild wood, 

 And every bosky bourn from side to side, 

 My daily walks and ancient neighbourhood." 



The fair poetess, who personated our bard's Perdita so charmingly, 

 contemplates on our native Hyacinth under the name of Bluebell : — 



" Bluebell ! how gaily art thou drest. 

 How neat and trim art thou, sweet flow'r ; 



How silky is thy azure vest, 



How fresh to flaunt at morning's hour ! 



Couldst thou but think, I well might say 



Thou art as proud in rich array 



As Lady Blithesome, young and vain, 



Prank'd up with folly and disdain. 



Vaunting her pow'r, A 



Sweet flow'r ! " 



Mrs. Robertson. 

 Mr. W. Brown says, — 



" The Harebell, for her stainless azured hue. 

 Claims to be worn by none but those are true." 

 It has been common to compare the Hyacinth flowers to curls, the 

 curling flowers bearing a striking resemblance to a cluster of hair 

 curls : — 



And hyacinthine locks 



Round from his parted forelock manly hung clustering." 



Dallaway, speaking of tlie women of the Island of Chios, says, " The 

 ringlets which are so elegantly disposed round the fair countenances of 

 these fair Chiotes are such as Milton describes by ' hyacinthine locks, 

 crisped and curled like the blossoms of that flower.' " 



Collins has the same simile in his Ode to Liberty : — 



" The youths whose locks divinely spreading 

 Like vernal Hyacinths in sullen hue." 



Sir Philip Sidney writes, " It was the exquisitely fair queen Helen, 

 whose jacinth hair, curled by nature, but intercurled by art, like a fine 

 brook tiirough golden sands, liad a rope of fair pearl, which, now 

 hidden by the hair, did, as it were, play at fast and loose each with 

 other, mutually giving and receiving richness." 



This flower is called Harebell from the campanula, or bell-shape of 

 its flowers, and from its being found so frequently in those thickets 

 most frequented by hares. 



The name of Bluebell is a sufficient distinction for those cottage 

 children who know but few besides their native plants, but we have 

 occasionally found them in coppices with a pure white corolla. Gerard 

 tells us that they have been found with " a faire Carnation colour ; " 

 but we should suspect that tliese were the remains of the bulbs brought 

 into this country by tiie Romans, as the places noticed where they have 



