THE FORGET-ME-XOT. 67 



in height. The leaves and stem are ordinarily very smooth, 

 though at times they may be found thickly covered with 

 small hairs. The lower leaves are much broader and not so 

 long as those of the stem : they are on short stems too, 

 while those that ordinarily meet the eye spring directly 

 from the main stem. The flowers are much larger than in 

 most of the other species. The Chinese ceramic artists 

 have introduced in some of their vases a highly-prized 

 colour, which, in their treatises, they call " the sky after 

 rain/' The flowers of the forget-me-not are of this pure 

 and delicate tint the clear azure of the sky, the delicate 

 colour of the turquoise. The centre of the flower is a 

 clear yellow. The buds and opening flowers of the plant 

 are often distinctly pink, no shade whatever of blue in 

 them, and at times this tint remains even when the 

 blossoms are fully expanded. The bugloss, borage, and 

 several other plants' have this same curious difference of 

 colour between their buds and blossoms. 



The generic name is derived from two Greek words 

 signifying mouse-ear ; the leaves of one of the species, the 

 J/. arveuis, are somewhat like the ear of a mouse, both in 

 the form and in the soft hairy texture. The leaves of the 

 present species are too long and narrow in form, and too 

 smooth in texture to make the name appropriate in its 

 special case. The specific name is simply an indication of 

 the marshy soil in which it thrives best. All the species 

 are often called scorpion-grass, an old name bestowed upon 

 them from the rolling round of the flower-stem towards 

 its extremity, a form of inflorescence that botanically is said 

 to be scorpoid, the allusion in either case being to the tail 

 of thescorpion, which this manner of growth dimly resembles. 

 The suggestion appears to us decidedly far-fetched and ill- 



