Ch. X XI. J OLASSES AND dRDERS. 127 



it Innocence, of which it is no unapt emblem, others term ii 

 Forget-me-not ; but as the latter name is appropriated to several 

 other flowers, I would recommend the former. This little flower 

 rises but a few inches from the ground ; it is surrounded by 

 tufts of leaves clustered around the root ; it grows in great lux- 

 uriance upon sloping banks, dotting the meadows and sides of 

 rivulets" often appearing in large patches, which form a soft 

 and fragrant bed; it invites the child weary of play to repose on 

 its flowery turf, and thus it becomes associated with recollec- 

 tions of the playful and happy innocence of early days. 



544. A lady of New England, who learned Botany at a dis- 

 tance from the scenes of her childhood, though she found a 

 great many splendid and beautiful flowers to examine by the 

 aid of her favourite study, was very anxious to meet with the 

 little pale blue meadow-flower which had flourished in such 

 luxuriance around the home of her infancy ; she examined 

 books to find drawings or descriptions of it, and searched the 

 fields for living specimens, but none seemed to answer to the 

 picture in her mind, and she at length gave up the little flower, 

 as a thing of mere fancy, which had mingled with the indis- 

 tinct recollections of early days. But on returning to her na- 

 tive place, as she was riding out one fine day in spring, a mossy 

 bank appeared to her delighted eye, bespangled with the flower 

 of Innocence, and presenting the very image she had so often 

 driven from he-r mind as a creation of fancy. She alighted, 

 and after feasting her eyes on the sight once so familiar, and 

 enjoying the freshness of the flowery turf, she carefully placed 

 in a book some tufts of the little plant, and on going home, 

 sought out its name and place in botanical arrangement. 



545. The lady saw that it had four stamens of nearly equal 

 length, and one pistil, and that it must therefore be described 

 under the fourth class, first order ; the little calyx was four cleft, 

 it supported a corolla having a small tube, and spreading into a 

 flat border with four petal like divisions, which resembled a 

 cross. The little leaves were ovate and radical ; and the stem 

 spieid out into small branches, bearing upon them the flowers. 

 Then the lady by examining the different descriptions of plants 

 in this class and order, found that her little favourite was known 

 by botanists by the name of HOUSTONIA cerulcea,* the generic 

 name being derived from Houston, the person who first describ- 



* Pionounced cerulea. 



543. What is said of the flower called Innocence 7 



544. What is said of a lady who wished to meet with this little 

 flower after she had studied Botany ? 



