FOFtGET-ME-NOT. 249 



shore, and at the moment of disappearing for ever, 

 he exclaimed, '* VenjUs mich nlchf,'" since which 

 time this flower has been made emblematical of, 

 and taken the name of *' Forget-me-not." 



It has become a favourite flower with the Ger- 

 man poets, as some lines of Lord Francis Leveson 

 Gower's translation of Goethe's " Lay of the Im- 

 prisoned Knight" will evince: — 



Ah ! well I know the loveliest flower, 



The fairest of the fair, 

 Of all that deck my lady's bower, 



Or bind her floating hair. 



Not on the mountain's shelving side, 



Nor in the cultivated ground. 

 Nor in the garden's painted pride. 



The flower I seek is found. 



Where time on sorrow's page of gloom 



Has fix'd its envious lot, 

 Or swept the record from the tomb, 



It says Forget-me-not. 



And this is still the loveliest flower, 



The fairest of the fair ; 

 Of all that deck my lady's bower. 



Or bind her floating hair. 



This flower has been figured as a device on the 

 seals of lovers, and had its praises sung in their 

 verses : — 



To flourish in my favourite bower. 



To blossom round my cot, 

 I cultivate the little flower 



They call Forget-me-not. 



M 5 



