BOG PIMPERNEL 25 



It was superstitiously held to assist memory, and regarded as the 

 symbol of remembrance : 



" Rosemary is for remembrance 

 Between us day and night, 

 Wishing that I may always have 

 You present in my sight ". 



Ophelia in Hamlet, addressing Laertes, says (Act IV, Sc. 5): 

 " There 's rosemary, that 's for remembrance ". 



At Christmas a decoction of it was said to make the old young 

 again. The following was said of a gouty, crooked, old queen : 



" Of rosemaryn she took six pounde 

 An grounde it well in a stownde"; 



"and they mixed it with water in which she bathed three times a day, 

 taking care to anoint her head with ' gode balm ' afterwards. Soon 

 her old flesh came away, and she became so young, fresh, and tender 

 she soon began to look out for a husband ". Probably many of these 

 refer to Rosmarinus. 



ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: 



192. Andromeda polifolia, L. Small evergreen shrub, stern fili- 

 form, woody, rigid, branched, leaves lanceolate, acute, alternate, margins 

 revolute, glaucous below, flowers rose-purple, in drooping raceme, ter- 

 minal, tufted, fruit a dry berry. 



Bog Pimpernel (Anagallis tenella, Murr.) 



Though a true bog plant it belongs rather to southern types (not 

 northern), and has not been discovered up to the present in any 

 ancient deposits. In the North Temperate Zone it occurs in Europe, 

 south of Belgium, except in Russia, E. Siberia, N. Africa, and Tem- 

 perate S. America. In Great Britain it is found in every part of the 

 country except Middlesex, W. Gloucs, Roxburgh, Stirling, Perth, 

 Forfar, W. Ross, E. Sutherland, more particularly in the west. It 

 is native in Ireland. 



Bog Pimpernel, like many other paludal plants, has become scarce 

 on account of agricultural improvements owing to drainage and cultiva- 

 tion. It is a typical bog plant, growing on spongy, peaty wastes, as 

 well as in less peaty tracts or marshes richer in lime, and in wet 

 meadows and damp places caused by perpetual springs or the overflow 

 from lakes and rivers. 



