bluebell

plural bluebells

1. Various flowering plants with blue, usually pendulous, flowers.

   “Sweet is the scent of the hawthorn, and sweet are the bluebells that hide in the valley, and the heather that blows on the hill. Yet Love is better than Life, and what is the heart of a bird compared to the heart of a man?”

   1888, Oscar Wilde, “The Nightingale and the Rose”, in The Happy Prince and Other Tales, London: Duckworth, published 1928, page 45

   1. common bluebell (Hyacinthoides non-scripta)
   2. Spanish bluebell (Hyacinthoides hispanica)
   3. Italian bluebell (Hyacinthoides italica)
   4. grape hyacinth (Muscari)
   5. plural normallyVirginia bluebell (Mertensia virginica)
   6. Scottish bluebell (harebell) (Campanula rotundifolia)

      The cutting sides were gay with heather in bloom, and masses of dainty Scots bluebells, while patches of clear sky overhead were bringing life and colour to the sea.

      1947 January and February, O. S. Nock, “"The Aberdonian" in Wartime”, in Railway Magazine, page 9

   7. Australian royal bluebell (Wahlenbergia gloriosa)
   8. Texas bluebell (Eustoma russellianum)
   9. desert bluebells or California bluebell (Phacelia campanularia)