42 FAMILIAR WILD FLOWERS. 



richer tints the rich scarlet of the poppy, the deep blue 

 of the borage, or the purple of the meadow cranesbill 

 being fairly typical examples. As these three species 

 have already appeared in our work, the reader may readily 

 turn to them in confirmation of our statement. We need 

 scarcely, however, stay to point out that, as in most other 

 cases, there are marked exceptions to any such generalisa- 

 tion, the deep purple of the present plant, the very 

 similar hue of the periwinkle, or the pure deep blue of 

 the germander speedwell being a wide departure from 

 the prevalent lightness of colour in spring blossoms; and 

 we might in the same way point out several flowers of 

 the summer and autumn that are to the full as light and 

 delicate as their sisters of the spring. Many such will 

 be found scattered amongst our illustrations, so that it 

 hardly seems worth while to linger in particularising them 

 more distinctly. 



All blue or purple flowers are liable to change of colour, 

 sometimes being found of a pure white, at others a reddish 

 tint the milkvvort, the sweet violet, the bugle, and the 

 present plant afford easily accessible examples of this, 

 while the germander speedwell only varies to white, never 

 to any shade of red. No flower normally blue ever changes 

 to any tint of yellow. 



The wild hyacinth is sometimes called the blue-bell. 

 It is a somewhat unfortunate name, however, as the hare- 

 bell is also occasionally known as the blue-bell, and there 

 are several other blue and more or less bell-like flowers, 

 as, for example, the gentians. The present plant is 

 known botanically as the Agraphis nutans, though by the 

 older writers it was called the Hyacinthus non-scrijitus, 

 and in some modern works it is the Scilla nutans or the 



