ARBUTUS. 17 



Franklin, in his Journey to the Shores of the Polar 

 Sea, speaks of the Arbutus alpina, of which, he says, 

 the fruit was ripe and plenty ; the natives gave it the 

 name of magpie-berry ; and the traveller and his com- 

 panions made a supper of it*. 



Barthelemy speaks of the height of these trees in 

 ascending Mount Ida: " Nous etions frappes de la 

 grosseur des cypres, de la hauteur des Arbousiers et des 

 Andrachnes-|-. r) 



" We were struck with the size of the cypress, and 

 the height of the Arbutus and Andrachne trees." 



Mrs. Barbauld speaks of this tree as an inhabitant of 

 Corsica : 



" Thy swelling mountains,, brown with solemn shade 

 Of various trees, that wave their giant arms 

 O'er the rough sons of freedom ; lofty pines, 

 And hardy fir, and ilex ever green, 

 And spreading chestnut, with each humbler plant 

 And shrub of fragrant leaf, that clothes their sides 

 With living verdure ; whence the clustering bee 

 Extracts her golden dews : the shining box, 

 And sweet-leaved myrtle, aromatic thyme, 

 The prickly juniper, and the green leaf 

 Which feeds the spinning-worm ; while glowing bright 

 Beneath the various foliage, wildly spreads 

 The arbutus, and rears his scarlet fruit 

 Luxuriant, mantling o'er the craggy steeps : 

 And thy own native laurel crowns the scene." 



MRS. BARBAULD'S CORSICA. Written in 1769. 



According to Barthelemy, very extraordinary powers 



* Pages 380 394. 



t Travels of Anacharsis the Younger, vol. vi. p. 298. 



C 



