74 WILD FLOWERS OF SCOTLAND 



speedwell, though mainly found in moist woods. 

 The whole plant is bigger. The leaf, which in the 

 open grew close against the stem, now takes on a 

 little stalk. Since it cannot see through the close 

 leafage, the flower forgets the colour of the sky. 

 The hue is pale. 



The other blue is the " forget-me-not," It, too, 

 is one of the most widely spread of our wild 

 flowers. It, too, is everywhere, in the gardens 

 and fields as a weed ; by the roadsides and in the 

 woods as a wild flower ; on the mountain-tops as 

 one of our very rarest alpines. It is the very 

 chameleon of flowers, passing through many shades 

 in the process of unfolding. In the open flower 

 the blue is darker than that of the veronica more 

 like the sky as reflected in the pool, or the blue of 

 the wind-chased sea. 



There are varieties in shade here also. The 

 deepest and purest is that of the water forget-me- 

 not. It grows in all sorts of moist places, nowhere 

 more perfectly than by the grassy margin of the 

 stream. There it can see its likeness in the pool- 

 can dip under the flowing current for its morning 

 bath. 



Round this plant a legend has grown, with much 

 of human pathos in it. As a play of the imagina- 



