104 The Bramble. 



creeping tribes, but forms one stiff, unpliant curve, nor has it any 

 foliage to recommend it. In short, it is a plant that should not, 

 I think, presume in landscape farther than has just been allowed. 

 It has little beauty in itself, and harmonizes as little with any- 

 thing around it, and may be characterized among the most in- 

 significant of vegetable reptiles." 



Shakspeare treats its fruit with as little ceremony ; for when 

 Thersites, a scurrilous Grecian, would show his contempt for all 

 the leaders in the camp, he says of Ulysses, " he is not proved 

 worth a blackberry." The former writer does allow it may be 

 seen with effect, " scrawling along the fragments of a rock, or 

 running among the rubbish of a ruin." 



This reminds us of a passage in Hasselquist's travels, who, on 

 visiting the poor remains of Scanderette, one of Alexander's mag- 

 nificent cities, observed a species of Bramble before unknown to 

 him, growing among the ruins. His botanical research, unwit- 

 tingly to himself, found a just comment on that passage in 

 Isaiah : " Thorns shall come up in her palaces, nettles and 

 brambles in the fortresses thereof." 



What dost thou here, pale flower 1 

 Thou that afore wert never seen to shine 

 In gay parterre, or gentle lady's bower, 

 In lover's wreath or poet's gifted line. 



Why from thy lowly haunts, 

 Art thou now called to have a place and name 

 'Mid buds whose beauty fancy's eye enchants, 

 Whose fragrance puts thy scentless leaves to shame 1 



'Tis that, though suffering ill, 

 Yea spurned and trodden by each passer-by, 

 Blossom and berry dost thou proffer still, 

 As all unmindful of the injury. 



Hardest of lessons this, 

 To suffer wrong with meekness — few, how few 

 The hand which smites unjustly, stoop to kiss, 

 Or blessings on the foeman's pathway strew. 



Then welcome, lowly flower ! 

 Welcome amid the fragrant and the gay ; 

 For which of all the buds in summer bower 

 Can fitter lesson to proud man convey 1 



Blackberries, when moderately eaten, are very wholesome, nu- 



