42 FLOWERS AND FRUITS. 



Lindley remarks that the modest beauty of the Harebells, amply 

 recompenses us, for the absence of the gaudy, scented and often 

 venomous flowers of more southern climates. In the subject of 

 our plate we find the representative of an extensive natural order, 

 the species of which are scattered over all Europe, and the cooler 

 parts of Asia and America, dwelling in dells and dingles, by the 

 banks of rivers, in shady groves, on the sides of mountains, and 

 even on the summit of the lower Alps, where the last lingering 

 traces of vegetation struggle with an atmosphere, that neither 

 animal nor plant can well endure. We know this tribe only in its 

 humblest state, bedecked with no other ornament than a few purple 

 or blue nodding flowers; but in foreign countries it acquires a far 

 more striking appearance. On the mountains of Switzerland there 

 are species with corollas of pale yellow, spotted with black ; on the 

 Alps of India, are others of the deepest purple that can be con- 

 ceived ; on the rocks of Madeira lives one whose corollas are of 

 a rich, golden, yellow ; and finally, in the pastures of the cape of 

 Good Hope, are ROELLAS, the flowers of which are elegantly 

 banded with streaks of violet or rose, passing into white. In our 

 own land, in almost every shady wood, grows a diminutive herb, 

 with little grassy leaves, and a few bell-shaped, nodding flowers, the 

 true Harebell of the poets, and emblem of DELICATE SWEETNESS. 



"There thou shall cull me simples, and shalt teach 

 Thy friend the name and healing powers of each, 

 From the tall Blue-bell to the dwarfish weed, 

 What the dry land, and what the marshes breed ; 

 For all their kinds alike to thee are known, 

 And the whole art of Galen is thine own. 

 Ah ! perish Galen's art, and withered be, 

 The useless herbs, that gave not health to thee." 



