CAMPANULA. — VACCINIUM. 135 



" 'Mid ruins tumbling to decay. 

 Thy flowers their heavenly hues display. 



Still freshly springing. 

 Where pride and pomp have pass'd away 

 On mossy tomb and turret gray. 

 Like friendship cUnging. 



* )>: >N H< 3|« 



" But most I love thine azure braid. 

 When softer flowers are all decay'd. 



And thou appearest 

 Stealing beneath the hedgerow shade. 

 Like joys that hnger as they fade, 



Whose last are dearest. 



" Thou art the flower of memory ; 

 The pensive soul recalls in thee 



The year's past pleasures ; 

 And, led by kindred thought, will flee. 

 Till, back to careless infancy. 



The path she measures." 



The flowers vary in the intensity of their colour, and are occa- 

 sionally pure white. — Our children have a custom of blowing into 

 the flower bell ; and then, placing it erect on the back of one hand, 

 they make it crack hy a smart stroke with the other. 



358. Vaccinium myrtillxjs. 33tatberrg. (Hurtberries. See 

 Fuller's Worthies, i. p. 396.)— On heaths 



" Where the Mlne'itvxitg grow 

 'Mang the bonnie bloomin' heather ; " 



and in woods. In the latter station the plant may he frequently ob- 

 served growing vigorously under the shade of trees where scarcely 

 another will vegetate. The Blaeberry, also, makes a large proportion of 

 the vegetation which covers our higher hills. On the 8th Sept. 1852, 

 I cut a sod, about four inches square, ftom near the summit of the 

 easternmost of the Eildons, and I found it to contain the following 

 plants only ; viz. Vaccinium myrtillus, Festuca ovina, Dicranum 

 scoparium, Cenomyce rangiferina, Hypnum purum, H. Schreberi, H. 

 splendens, Galium saxatile, and TormentUla officinalis. 



Boys who love to rove " the bushy brakes and glens among," eat 

 the flowers in anticipation of the fruit. When this is ripe, parties of 

 pleasure are sometimes made to go a gathering of it. Boiled in milk, 

 and seasoned with sugar, the juicy berries form a dish which is, on 

 the whole, a poor one. They are more agreeable when eaten as pulled 

 from the shrub, especially when this grows on a sunny brae. There 

 is a current belief that a good crop comes only every alternate year. 

 The flowers are much frequented by ants. 



35f). V. viTis-iD^A. Mountain heaths. B. Banks of the 

 Whiteadder near Abbey St. Bathans ; and about the top of Dir- 

 rington Law, Kev. Thos. Brown. N. Higher parts of Cheviot, and 

 of Hedge-hope. Hepburn Hill at Chillingham. June-July. 



