170 



1. M. palustris, " Kiphoff," ( Great Water Scorpion Grass. Forget-me- 

 not). Calyx with straight appressed bristles ; when in fruit campanulate, with 

 short, broad, spreading teeth, shorter than the divergent pedicels. Limb of the 

 corolla flat, longer than the tube. Pubescence of the stem spreading. Racemes 

 leafless. 



M. palustris, Eng. Bot., 1. 1973 ; With., ed. 3, v. ii., p. 225 ; Smith, Engl. Fl., 

 v. i., p. 249; Borr. in Hook. Br. Fl., ed. 3, p. 101. M. scorpioides, /}, Linn., 

 Sp. Plant., p. 188. M. scorpioides, S, Huds., p. 78. M. scorpioides palustris, 

 Raii Syn., p. 229. 



Ditches and sides of rivers ; common. Perennial ; flowers from June to Sep- 

 tember. Roots long and creeping. Herb bright green. Stems from twelve to 

 eighteen inches high, ascending, branched, leafy, clothed with short, spreading, bristly 

 hairs. Leaves sessile, elliptic-oblong, rough, with appressed bristles. Flowers in 

 long leafless clusters, very beautiful, of a bright blue colour and enamelled ap- 

 pearance. This is the true Forget-me-not ; the Vergiss me nicht of the Germans. 

 The elegance and enamelled brilliancy of its soft blue flowers has rendered this 

 little plant a general favourite, and drawn to it the attention of the poet and the 

 moralist. The legend to which it owes its popular name is not generally known, 

 and may, therefore, not be unacceptable here. A young German maiden, walk- 

 ing with her lover by the side of a brook or stream, whose sparkling waters were 

 rolling rapidly along its course, observed the flowers on the opposite bank. At- 

 tracted by their beauty, she expressed a wish for them ; when the young man in- 

 stantly plunged into the stream, the deceitful clearness of whose waters disguised 

 the depth. He with difficulty reached the opposite bank so as to obtain the 

 flowers, but was immediately carried away by the force of the current. Hastily 

 throwing them to his beloved, and exclaiming " Vergiss me nicht ! Ver- 

 giss me nicht /" — Forget-me-not ! Forget-me-not ! — he sunk to rise no more. 

 The memory of the unfortunate youth, and the faithfulness of the disconsolate girl, 

 have ever since been preserved in the name of the flowers, and the Forget-me-not 

 has, from this period, been considered as the emblem of constancy and truth — of 

 friendship and love. The following lines, expressive of this emblematical signifi- 

 cation, are a nearly literal translation of a stanza in a very beautiful poem called 

 Die Sprache der Blumen, or the language of flowers : 



" Anxious and care-worn is thy lot ? 

 Behold yon floweret in the murmuring stream, 

 Friendly, and light, and blue, its star-like gleam : 



Love names it the Forget-me-not. 

 Would'st thou thy life not waste in sorrow vain, 

 With holy hands the truth thou wilt retain."+ 



f From the German of Schreiber. 



