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RAMBLES AMONG WILD-FLOWERS. 
But let us wend our way to the heath land ; and there, perhaps, we may meet with some plants 
of the small dwarf or winter Furze. It is common enough ; but when it is found at this season of 
the year, we may rely on our search being rewarded; its orange blossoms seem to defy equally 
the bleak winds and nipping frosts of the autumnal and winter months, and rarely going out 
of bloom before the end of January. The unpractised eye might easily confound tliis species 
{Ulex nanus) with the common Furze or Gorse {Ulex eiiro2ie?iis), which is in blossom from Spring 
to the end of Summer ; and hence poets, who are not also botanists, have regarded the plants as 
identical, and smig them as " the never-bloomless Fm-ze." 
And then the Violet — the shade-aflfectiug Violet — which poets sing, and all men love ; if Favonius 
invites, we shall find it with its deep-blue eyes, 
So sweetly smiling from its lowly bed, 
Like a young heart in full confidingness, 
"Whose every hope is tinged with gold, 
And heavenly azure seems to mould 
Into the hue of constancy. 
Nay, we may soon gather Wild-flowers enough to fill om' vaseulum, and more than will suiSce to fill 
oui- thoughts. The Mezereon " breathes mild its early sweets." The dead Nettles (Lamhim) are found 
beneath the southern hedges. The Snowdi'op ( Qalanthus nivalis), with its wand-like stem, is in bloom. 
Several Ranunculi are now in flower. The Hazel (Corylus Avellana) unfolds its male blossoms. The 
flowers of the Holly (Ilex Aqnifolium) begin to open. The leaves of the Honeysuckle (Lunicera Peri- 
clymenum), 
" which loves to crawl 
Up' the low crag and ruin'd waU." 
are quite out. The Periwinldes ( Vinca) smile upon us from their lowly bed. The Daisy (Bellis pe- 
rennisj, the " wee crimson tippit flower," the " poet's darling," greets us everywhere. The Willow 
(Salix) " shows its downy powdered flowers." The Elder Tree (Samhiicns nigra) has, in some warm 
hedge-rows, put forth its flower-buds ; and if the season be early, we may also find the Alder (Almis 
f/hitinosa) and the Aspen (Populus tremula). By the way, the Highlanders entertain a superstitious 
notion that oru- Saviom-'s cross was made of this tree, and, for that reason, they suppose its leaves can 
never rest. 
These are, however, but a tithe of the Wild-flowers the piercing eye of the devout botanist may 
find towards the end of February, and in the beginning of March ; and the list will be materially 
affected, according to the season. But still these are enough to be suggestive of much sweet thought 
and to call forth feelings of tenderness, which " often He too deep for tears." We need not appeal to 
the floral language of the East ; for does not every village maid attach a meaning to each flower she 
gives or takes ? When the unhappy Ophelia, thinldng herself forsaken, becomes insane, Shakespeare, 
with that exquisite and consummate delicacy of feeling with wluch he has delineated the minutest fea- 
ture of every chai'acter he has di-awn, — even in a state of aberration, — i-epresents her poor distracted 
thoughts, dwelling upon melancholy associations connected with flowers. Yes! who can dwell upon Pan- 
sies or Violets without remembering the outpourings of poor Ophelia's bewildered mind, lighting up, 
with gleams of wild and ti-ansitory fancies, the ruins of her broken heart ? And, we may faiily ask, 
was it not intended, and is it not, perhaps, the final cause of objects being so perfectly formed, — so 
invested mth loveliness, and so agreeable to our sight, — that they should be suggestive of associations 
which elevate the mind and refine the feelings ? 
But it is not merely the fi-agrance and the beauty of Wild-flowers which endear them to us, as 
we observe them in oui- walk, peeping out fi'om imderneath the shadow of the Hawthorn hedge. They 
have their uses and appliances to relieve the wants and sufferings of humanity. To these we may, if 
acceptable to our readers, at some future time allude, for they possess the power to cm-e, and from them 
may be extracted potions to calm or excite the troubled and distracted spii-it. And, availing himself 
of this fact, Coleridge, in his wild and beautiful tale of Ch.ristahel, makes the " lovely lady" administer to 
the mysterious damsel she met by moonKght in the forest, — after she had prayed beneath the old Oak tree, 
and conducted her to her father's hall, — the Wild-flower wine which restores her prostrate frame — 
" weary Lady Geraldiuo, 
I pray you drink this cordial wine ! 
It is a wine of virtuous powers ; 
Mv mother made it of "W^ld-flowers." 
" T. ^ 
J But we must stop. Reader, it is the associations, whether philosophic or poetic, we carry with fi> 
us, wliich throw a charm around these solitary rambles, in the course of which every well constituted (Jmj 
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