ur
berries, and bruise them, and to every gallon of the fruit add a
quart of boiling water. Let the mixture stand for twenty-four hours,
occasionally stirring; then strain off the liquid, adding to every
gallon a couple of pounds of refined sugar, and keep it in a cask
tightly corked till the following October, when it will be ripe and
rich.

A noted hair-dye is said to be made by boiling the leaves of the
bramble in strong lye, which then imparts permanently to the hair
a soft, black colour. Tom Hood, in his humorous way, described a
negro funeral [57] as "going a black burying." An American poet
graphically tell us:--

"Earth's full of Heaven,
And every common bush afire with God!
But only they who see take off their shoes;
The rest sit round it, and--pluck blackberries."

BLUEBELL (Wild Hyacinth).

This,--the _Agraphis mutans_,--of the Lily tribe--is so abundant in
English woods and pastures, whilst so widely known, and popular
with young and old, as to need no description. Hyacinth petals
are marked in general with dark spots, resembling in their
arrangement the Greek word AI, alas! because a youth, beloved by
Apollo, and killed by an ill-wind, was changed into this flower.
But the wild Hyacinth bears no such character on its petals, and is
therefore called "non-scriptus." The graceful curl of the petals, not
their dark violet colour, has suggested to the poets "hyacinthine
locks."

In Walton's _Angler_ the Bluebell is mentioned as Culverkeys, the
same as "Calverkeys" in Wiltshire. No particular medicinal uses
have attached themselves to the wild Hyacinth flower as a herbal
simple. The root is round, and was formerly prized for its
abundant clammy juice given out when bruised, and employed as
starch. Miss Pratt refers to this as poisonous; and our Poet
Laureate teaches:--

"In the month when earth and sky are one,
To squeeze the blue bell 'gainst the adder's bite."

When dried and powdered, the root as a styptic is of special virtue
to cure the whites of women: in doses of not more than three
grains at a time. "There is [58] hardly," says Sir John Hill, "a more
powerful remedy." Tennyson has termed the woodland abundance
of Hyacinths in full spring time as "The heavens upbreaking
through the earth." On the day of St. George, the Patron Saint of
England, these wild hyacinths tinge the meadows and pastures
with their deep blue colour--an emblem of the ocean empire, over