150 OUB COMMON FBTJITS. 



with that special intention, to no plant do they apply 

 more appropriately than to the gooseberry. 



"If we would open and intend our eye, 

 \Ve all, like Moses, should espy 

 Ev'n in a bush the radiant Deity; 

 But we despise these His inferior ways, 

 Though no less full of miracle and praise. 



" Upon the flowers of heaven we gaze, 

 The stars of earth no wonder in us raise, 

 Though these perhaps do more than they 

 The life of mankind sway. 



" Although no part of mighty Nature be 

 More stored with beauty, power, and majesty, 

 Yet, to encourage human industry, 

 God has so ordered that no other part 

 Such space and such domiuiou leave for Art." 



COWLET. 



CHAPTEE XI. 

 THE BAEBEEEY. 



SOMETIMES nestling in the sweet centre of a sugary 

 comfit more often garlanding, with serried sprays of 

 coralline ruddiness, some triumph of confectionery art 

 the Barberry appears at our tables, usually only in a very 

 supplementary kind of manner; yet as it does "enter an 

 appearance" there in due form, it cannot be denied some 

 notice, especially as it further claims to be one of the 

 fruits indigenous to our own country. It is thought by 

 aome to have come originally from the East, but no record 

 remains of its having been introduced thence, and it is 

 now at least found wild in most parts of Europe and also 

 of America ; while, to endow it with a respectable clas- 

 sical antiquity, it has been assumed to be the fruit re- 

 ferred to by Pliny, when he describes " a kind of thorny 

 bush, called appendix, having red berries hanging from 

 the branches, which are called appendices." Gerard in- 

 forms us that in his time (1597) it was very common in 

 England, and that near Colnbrook especially the hedges 

 were nothing else but barberry-bushes ; but now, though 

 still sometimes found wild, it is comparatively rare, though 



