THE BLUE BELL. 



explode with a loud noise, when pressed between the fingers, 

 and afford a trifling amusement to children. Now and then 

 sedate adults vie with the juveniles in this explosive sport, for 

 which its sentiment has been assigned, perhaps with a degree 

 of contemptuousness which borders on ill-nature. Roman 

 Catholics are said to string them for use as rosaries ; and 

 poor people on the Continent form necklaces of the seeds, 

 which are highly polished. 



THE BLUE BELL {Scilla nonscripta). — KINDNESS. 



This pretty flower, commonly called the Wild Hyacinth, 

 abounds in the spring months in our shady woods. Nowhere 

 have we seen it so profusely blooming, as in the hazel copses 

 around Godalming, a neighbourhood full of picturesque 

 beauty, where, interspersed with the wood anemone, and a 

 host of other flowers, it appears to great advantage. The 

 French call it Jacinthe des Bois, on account of its fondness 

 for woodland shades, a characteristic which Elliott, the 

 Corn-law rhymer, has noticed in his vigorous verse : — 



" Shade-loving Hyacinth ! thou comest again, 

 And thy rich odours seem to swell the flow 

 Of the lark's song, the redbreast's lovely strain, 

 And the stream's tune ; — best sung where wild flowers blow. 

 And ever sweetest where the sweetest grow." 



Keats, in his poem " Fancy," was mindful of its shade-loving 

 character, and calls the Blue Bell the Queen of May, — 



" Shaded Hyacinth, alway sapphire Queen of the Mid-May." 



33 D 



