EBRNS OP GREAT BRITAIN. 67 



three or four feet. It may often be seen, too, gracing 

 spots of another character, for the slopes of grassy hills 

 are not without its clumps, and sometimes it bows to 

 the wind which bends also the blue-beUs as it rushes 

 over the heathland laden with the fragrance of the wUd 

 thyme. 



Walter Scott, alluding to this plant in Waverley, 

 mentions its love for the moist shady woodlands : — 



"Where the copsewood ia the greenest, 

 Where the fountain glistens sheenest, 

 Where the morning dew lies longest. 

 There the Lady Pern grows strongest." 



Calder Campbell, too, in some lines which he has 

 written for this volume, well describes such a spot as the 

 Lady Pern delights to haunt : — 



" If you would see the Lady Pern 



In all her graceful power. 

 Go look for her where the woodlarks learn 



Love-songs in a summer bower ; 

 Where not far off, nor yet close by, 



A merry stream trips on. 

 Just near enow for an old man's eye 



To watch the waters run. 

 And leap o'er many a cluster white 



Of Crowfoots o'er them spread ; 

 While Hart's-tongues glint with a green more bright 



Where the Brackens make their bed : 

 Perns all — and loyely all — ^yet each 



Yielding in charms to her 

 Whose natural graces Art might teach 



High lessons to confer. 



" Go look for the Pimpernel by day, 

 For Silene's flowers by night;* 



* Silene nutans, the Nottingham Catchfly, and Silene nodiflora, 

 the Night-flowering Catchfly, expand only at night-time. 



