36 WILD FLOWERS OF SCOTLAND 



a lily, it is a campanula, which is just another 

 name for bell. And this is the most delicate of the 

 graceful family to which it belongs. 



Here everything is etherealised, only sufficient 

 substance being used to indicate and preserve the 

 form. If it were not prejudging the case, one 

 might be disposed to pronounce it the most perfect 

 in shape of all flowers, either wild or cultivated, in 

 Scotland or elsewhere. 



There is no stiffness about it, like the other ; no 

 stout stem whereon to suspend heavy-textured 

 blossoms. If ever bell were tremblingly hung, this 

 one is. It vibrates to the slightest stirring of the 

 air ; and when is the air still in its exposed 

 haunts ? It seeks the open wastes, as pleasanter 

 for the breathless days than the sheltered wood- 

 lands. 



Not yet has it been decided how the name arose ; 

 and the spelling is left very much to individual 

 imagination and taste. Where the choice is 

 between two such names, equally poetic and 

 suggestive, there is really no hurry. The pity 

 would be to lose either of them. 



If it is hair bell, the reference is to the exquisite 

 poising of the blossom on the hair-like stem. If 

 hare bell, still fresher associations with the moor- 



