MARSH MARIGOLD. 14 



with triangular leaves and rooting stems. It occurs only in 

 Forfarshire, and is very rare. 



The name is derived from the Greek, Kalathos, a cup, in 

 allusion to the form of the flower. 



Wild Hyacinth, or Blue-Bell (Sdlla nutans). 



After the daisy, buttercup and primrose, few wild flowers are 

 better known than the Blue-bell or Wild Hyacinth. In the 

 very earliest days of spring its leaves break through the earth 

 and lay in rosette fashion close to the surface, leaving a circular 

 tube through which the spike of pale unopened buds soon 

 arises. A few premature individuals may be seen in full 

 flower at quite an early date ; but it is not until spring is fully 

 and fairly with us that we can look through the woods under 

 the trees and see millions of them swaying like a blue mist ; or, 

 as Tennyson has finely and truly worded it, " that seem the 

 heavens upbreaking through the earth." This must not be 

 confounded with the Blue-bell of Scotland, which is 

 Campanula rotundifolia (see page 78). 



If we dig up an entire specimen we shall find that, like the 

 hyacinth of the florist, its foundation is a roundish bulb, in 

 this case somewhat less than an inch in diameter at its 

 stoutest part. The leaves have parallel sides, or, as the 

 botanist would say, they are linear ; and before the plant has 

 done flowering they have reached the length of a foot or more, 

 whilst the flower-stalk is nearly as long again. Before the 

 flowers open the buds are all erect, but these gradually assume 

 a drooping attitude ; though when the seeds are ripening the 

 capsule again becomes erect. 



The flower is an elongated bell, showing no distinction 

 between calyx and corolla ; it is therefore called a perianth. It 

 consists of six floral leaves, joined together at their bases, the 

 free portions curling back and disclosing the six yellow 



