216 SONGS OF THE FLOWERS, 
«¢ 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 fixed 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. 
It springs where Avon gently flows, 
In wild simplicity, 
And ‘neath my cottage-window grows, 
Sacred to love and thee. 
This pretty little flow’ret’s dye, 
Of soft cerulean blue, 
Appears as if from Ellen’s eye 
It had received its hue. 
Though oceans now betwixt us roar, 
Though distant be our lot, 
Ellen! though we should meet no more, 
Sweet maid, Forget-me-not !” 
The Forget-me-not is seen no where in greater perfection and 
abundance than on the banks of a stream in the environs of Luxem- 
bourg, which is known by the name of the Fairies’ Bath, or the 
Cascade of the Enchanted Oak. ‘The romantic banks of this stream 
are covered with these pretty blue flowers from the beginning of 
July until the end of August, and which being reflected in the pure 
waters appear more numerous than they really are. 
To this favourite spot the young girls often descend from the 
ramparts of the town to spend the leisure hours of their saints’ days, in 
dancing on the borders of this stream, where they are seen crowned 
with the flowers which the waters afford them. 
