ion as one
cluster after another reveals itself to their eager researches. Some
are too much engaged in the quest to notice the brilliant flowers
which at another time would have engrossed all their thoughts; whilst
others, wreathed round with the bright blue wood-vetch, the shining
broad-leaved bryony, and the rose and honeysuckle, will have to lay
down the large handfuls of flowers with which they have encumbered
themselves, before they can share in the enjoyment of collecting the
fragrant berries. Then comes the hour of assembling, to take their tea
and eat the sweet, fresh fruit, and talk over their adventures with
the happy parents who have awaited the gathering together of the young
ones. Perhaps this assembling takes place in the nearest farmhouse,
where fresh milk and rich cream are added to the repast; or it may be
under the boughs of one of those masters of the forest, which we may
fancy to have seen such gatherings, year by year, for centuries past,
and could tell us tales of groups of little people, arranged in the
costumes depicted by Holbein, Vandyk, or Lely, the garb of ancient
days, seated by their stately seniors, whilst the antlered deer, then
the free denizens of the forest, stood at bay, half-startled at the
merry party which had invaded their solitude; and the squirrel, little
more vivacious in its furry jacket than the stiffly-dressed little
bipeds, sprang from bough to bough overhead; and the hare and rabbit
bounded along over the distant upland. But we must return to our
description of

The blushing strawberry,
Which lurks close shrouded from high-looking eyes,
Shewing that sweetness low and hidden lies.

The whole tribe takes its generic name from its fragrance; the word
_fragrans_, sweet-smelling, being that from which Fragaria is derived.
The wood-strawberry is seldom larger than a horse-bean, of a brilliant
red, and the flesh whiter than that of any cultivated species; the
flavour is remarkably clear and full--a pleasant subacid, with more of
the peculiar strawberry perfume in the taste than any other. They are
very wholesome, indeed considered valuable medicinally. The other wild
species is the hautboy: this is larger than _F. vesca_, more hairy,
and its fruit a deeper red; the flavour, like that of the
garden-hautboy, rather musty; in its uses and qualities, it resembles
_F. vesca_. The strawberry does not seem to have been noticed by the
ancients, though it i