16 ENGLISH WILD FLOWERS. 



They formed the distinctive military badge of the 

 Houses of Lancaster and York; but long ere this a more 

 humble plant, the common Broom (the old Planta 

 genista) had given a name to a famous race of English 

 kings, the Plantagenets. The various species of Heath 

 were used by Highland clans as badges in war. 

 The story of the sweet Forget-me-not is told by Miss 

 Strickland in her " Lives of the Queens of England." 

 She says that " the royal adventurer, Henry of Lan- 

 caster the banishedand aspiring Lancaster appears 

 to have been the person who gave to the Myosotis ar- 

 vensis, or forget-me-not, its emblematic and poetical 

 meaning, by wearing it, at the period of his exile, on 

 his collar of S.S., with the initial letter of his mot or 

 watchword, Souveigne vous demoy; thus rendering it 

 the symbol of remembrance, and, like the subsequent 

 fatal roses of York and Lancaster and Stuart, the lily 

 of Bourbon, and the violet of Napoleon, an historical 

 flower. Few of those who at parting exchange this 

 touching appeal to memory are aware of the fact that 

 it was first used as such by a royal Plantagenet prince, 

 who was, perhaps, indebted to the agency of this mystic 

 blossom for the crown of England. It was with his 

 hostess, at that time wife of the Duke of Bretagne, 



