3 WILD IIYACINTIT. 



or less of this juice if we bruise it. Though 

 the root is unfit for food, and is useless to us 

 now, yet in former times it was much prized. 

 In days when very stiff ruffs were worn, the 

 juice was made into starch, and employed 

 to stiffen linen. It served the bookbinder, 

 too, as glue, to fasten the covers of books. 

 The flower has a shght scent, but the chief 

 charms of the Blue-Bell are its beauty and 

 its early appearance. It is but lately that 

 we have looked upon bare trees, and ground 

 strewed with Avithered leaves, and when no 

 songs of joy were heard ; and now the early 

 flowers seem to say, in the language of Scrip- 

 ture, " The winter is past ; the rain is over 

 and gone ; the flowers appear on the earth ; 

 the time for the singing of birds is come ; and 

 the voice of the turtle is heard in the land." 

 Our Wild Hyacinth is sometimes found w^ith 

 white or flesh-coloured flowers, but the beauti- 

 ful garden hyacinths, with double blossoms, 

 are brought from different countries of the 

 East. 



