FLOWERS AND GRASSES. 77 



for the flower of " the rivulet or wet roadside." The 

 old story of the drowning knight who cast to his 

 ladye-love a handful of these flowers, exclaiming, 

 "Forget me not," as he was carried away by the 

 stream, is cherished as the poetical origin of the 

 name. 



Scarcely less cherished is the Primrose, the memory 

 of which haunts the exile from his native land. As an 

 illustration of this, it is said that a living plant was car- 

 ried over to Australia, where it was publicly exhibited 

 in one of the large towns, and was visited by thou- 

 sands. Many who saw it then thought little of it in 

 their native land. They were like him of whom it is 

 written 



" A primrose by the river's brim 



Or by the cottage door, 

 A yellow primrose was to him, 



And it was nothing more. " 



In towns and villages there is a little plant much 

 cherished by cottagers under the name of " Creeping 

 Jenny," which grows wild by the side of ditches. A 

 similar plant is common in woods, with rather smaller 

 yellow flowers, but the same creeping habit. It is 

 the "Yellow Pimpernel," 1 with the form, but without 

 the romance and poetry, of the scarlet pimpernel or 

 " poor man's weather-glass." 



Docks, of course, will assert themselves amongst 

 trees as well as amongst corn, and, consequently, 

 here we meet with the Red-veined Dock 2 as well as 

 in hedges, and sometimes one or other of the field- 



1 Lysimachia nemorum. 2 Rumex sanguineus. 



