76 WILD FLOWERS 



be the true shamrock, and, combined with 

 the purple-spotted flower, has made the plant 

 a favourite symbol in the work of religious 

 painters, suggesting both the Trinity and 

 the Passion. 



In sheets of blue, gleaming through the 

 stems as if it were a lake, are beds of Wild 

 Hyacinth (Endymionnutans), Plate III., Fig. 9. 

 It is sometimes called the bluebell, and is 

 to most people associated with the happiest 

 memories of Spring. 



The graceful Foxglove (Digitalis purpurea), 

 Plate III., Fig. 11, with dignified and lofty 

 spikes, is, perhaps, hardly a woodland flower, 

 preferring open hillsides among bracken. Its 

 bells are poisonous, and must not be chewed. 

 The name has nothing to do with Eeynard 

 the Fox, but alludes to ' the Folk,' that is to 

 say, the fairies. Our ancestors did not care 

 to name these little people too specifically. 



The Primrose (Primula acaulis), Plate IV., 

 Fig. 1, is literally ' the first rose,' although it 

 has in fact no connection with the rose tribe. 

 It used to be a great pleasure to us, when 

 children, to go to the woods and dig primrose 

 roots to form borders to our garden plots. 



