i8 
THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. 
ily belongs the common furze or gorse, a plant as prickly as a 
thistle, the very reverse of what one would expect a sweet pea's 
relative to' be. 
Many cherished flowers of American gardens are familiar 
roadside wildings in England. Among such may be mentioned 
the ragged robin, the yellow pansy and the Johnny-jump-up. 
The last is particularly dear to the popular heart as is evidenced 
by the multitude of common names by which it goes, forty or 
more being ennumerated in Britten and Holland's ''Dictionary of 
English Plant Names." One of these, "Meet-her-in-the-entry- 
kiss-her-in-the-buttery," is thought tO' be the longest plant name 
in the language. Another popular name of the same exquisite 
flower, and one that is said to be still in use in Shakespeare's na- 
tive Warwickshire, is ''Love-in-idleness," which occurs in a well 
known passage in "A Midsummer Night's Dream :" 
"Marked I where the bolt of Cupid fell ; 
It fell upon a little western flower — 
Before milk white, now purple with love's woimd — 
And maidens call it love-in-idleness." 
The fox glove's languid bells, too, are common sights on road- 
side banks and in the woodlands of many parts of England. On 
the grouse moors many charming wild flowers bloom — most char- 
acteristic of which are the heath {Erica tetralis)2ind the ling 
(CaUuncD vulgaris). The latter is the famous heather of Scot- 
land. Both plants grow intermingled on English moors and as 
they cover large areas, make, when in bloom, a sight not soon to 
be forgotten. The blossoms of the heath are especially beautiful 
— small globes of a warm rose color, borne in clusters at the sum- 
mit of slender stems. The moors are also rich in the low bushes 
of the bilberry, a sort of huckleberry with reddish flowers that 
expand in the spring. The fruit ripens in late July and the coun- 
try folk are usually permitted to pick the berries until the 12th of 
August when all trespassers are ordered off the moors,, as that 
date marks the opening of the shooting season. In similar situ- 
ations one finds the harebell (the blue bell of Scotland, one with 
