JUNE. 189 



cos), its bright red flowers contrasting with the pearly 

 Sphagnum around it, and the little clustered box- 

 leaved Cowberry (F. Vitis-idcsa) , with its pure white 

 or slightly rose-tinged petals. 



Eanks of brooks and slow rivers are brightened in 

 June by that universal favourite the Eorget-me-Not 

 (Myosotis palustris) , and sometimes beside it is the 

 kindred species M. ccespitosa, with smaller flowers and 

 ligulate leaves with appressed white hairs, while those 

 of JLT. palustria are smooth, and the pubescence of the 

 stem, if any, spreading. Much sentimental absurdity 

 has been lavished upon the Eorget-me-Not, imported 

 however from Germany, for it is not upon record that 

 any knight in England ever perished in getting it for 

 his lady-love, and clumsy must any one have been to 

 do so. Still, without growing too wild' upon such a 

 tempting subject, it may be truly said that this is a 

 chaste and enchantingly delicate flower, sacred to love, 

 friendship, and poesy, in almost every part of Europe. 

 This may have arisen from its affecting those shady 

 and retired localities by the fountain's perennial flow, 

 which are alone grateful to the wanderer at the fervid 

 season when this symbolic azure flower unfolds itself, 

 bright and expansive in the twilight hour on the 

 margin of the lone stream as in the blaze of noon. 

 In this respect, then, it may well typify wakeful affec- 

 tion, and as always growing in wet places, may induce 

 the poetical suggestion, that affectionate remembrance 

 will always moisten the eye of sensibility. There are 

 other species of Myosotis, or Scorpion-grass, that with 

 almost equal beauty of flower are confined to dry 

 spots, as the M. Sylvatica, M. arvensis, and the 

 yellow-flowered M. versicolor. The racemes of the 



