220 



THE GENESEE FARMER. 



LEAVES AXD FRDIT OP THE LIVE OAK. 



beautiful park tree in the Southern States, growing 

 about 40 feet high, with a rather wide and low 

 head. Its thick oval leaves are evergreen, and it 

 is to be regretted that this valuable tree will not 

 stand our northern winters. 



THE WILD FLOWERS OF ENGLAND.* 



This is a very beautiful, very truthful, and very 

 useful little book, and we fully believe, as stated in 

 the preface to this new edition, that " many readers 

 perceived new beauties, and acquired new associa- 

 tions which made their meeting with our favorite 

 field flowers more interesting, and more joyous," 

 since they perused its pages. That our readers 

 may judge for themselves, we extract the following: 



THE FORGET-ME-NOT. 

 " That name, it speaks in accenta dear 

 Of love, and hope, and joy, and fear ; 

 It softly tells an absent friend 

 That links of love should never rend ; 

 Its whispers waft on swelling breeze, 

 O'er hill, and dale, by land and seas, 



Forget-me-not I 



" Gem of the rill ! we love to greet 

 Thy blossoms smiling at our feet 

 We fancy to thy fiow'ret given 

 A semblance of the azure heaven ; 

 And deem thine eye of gold to be 

 The star that gleams bo brilliantly." 

 —Bouquet des Sotwenirs. 



" The romantic story with which the Forget-me- 

 not is connected has made it known to thousands 

 who, perhaps, would never otherwise have become 

 acquainted with its existence. Independent, how- 

 ever, of the fame thus attached to it, when once 

 seen and noticed, its own beauty would gain for it 

 a place in the memory. The bright blue of the 

 flowers, and their rich golden centres, render them 

 individually an object to be admired ; and as they 

 gradually unfold themselves at the curled extremity 



♦Thb Wild Flowkbs op England, or Favorite Field Flowers 

 popularly described. By the Rev. K. Ttab, M. A., &c. With 

 twelve highly-colored groups of flowers by J. Andeews, F. H. S. 

 LondoD: Uouxstok &, Wxioht. 



of the stem, where they are arranged in two rows, 

 and alternately, on foot-stalks, their appearance is 

 truly beautiful ; but when the plants in bloom are so 

 numerous as to form a sort of fringe on the margin 

 of a rivulet, as we have seen them, words cannot 

 convey an adequate idea of the eft'ect. They are, 

 in truth, very ornamental, and cannot fail to win 

 the favor of every rambler who strolls where is 

 seen, 



' By rivulet, or spring, or wet road-side. 

 That blue and bright-ey'd flow-ret of the brook, 

 Hope's gentle gem, the sweet ' Forget-me-not,' ' 



" The incident already referred to as having ren- 

 dered this flower so well known, and which, w© 

 are told, gave rise to the present name, is said to 

 have occurred on the banks of the Danube. Two 

 betrothed lovers were strolling along, on a pleasant 

 summer's evening in the delightful month of June, 

 engaged in agreeable and afl'ectionate conversation, 

 when they observed the pretty flower of the Water 

 Scorpion Grass apparently floating on the water. 

 The bride elect looked upon the flower with admi- 

 ration, and, supposing it to be detached, regarded 

 it as being carried to destruction ; her lover, 

 regretting its fate, and wishing to preserve it, was 

 induced to jump into the river ; but as he seized the 

 flower, he sunk beneath the stream ; making a final 

 effort, he threw the flower on the bank, repeating, 

 as he was sinking for the last time, the woris, 

 ' Vergiss mich nicht.' Since this event, the Ger- 

 mans have called the flower Vergissmeinnicht, and 

 we, translating the word, Forget-me-not. 



" The circumstance whence this flower derived 

 its name, and the name itself, have made it a favor- 

 ite with German poets. Gokthe, in his ' Lay of 

 the Imprisoned Knight,' represents it to be the 

 choice flower of the lady whose praises are 

 rehearsed. We insert Lord F. Leveson Goweb's 

 translation of these lines : 



' Ah ! well I know the loveliest flower, 



The fairest of the fair, , 



Of all that deck my lady's bower, 

 Or bind her floating liair. 



' Not on the mountain's shelving side, 

 Nor in the cultivated ground, 

 Nor in the garden's painted pride, 

 The flower 1 seek is found. 



' Where time on sorrow's page of gloom 



Has fixed his envious lot, 

 Or swept the record from the tomb, 

 It says. Forget-me-not. 



' And this is still the loveliest flower, 



The fairest of the fair, 

 Of all that deck my lady's bower, 

 Or bind her floating hair. 



Lima Beans. — Our esteemed correspondent, J. 

 0. Adams, of Allegany Co., N. Y., writes us that 

 he finds it better not to pole Lima beans. He says : 

 "When they have nothing to cling to or climb 

 upon, they bloom and set upon the main stalks, 

 the same as string beans. I have raised both the 

 Lima and Quail-head beans without poles with 

 marked success." Another correspondent, E. P. 

 B., says : " It is a good plan to pinch off the endg 

 of the vines when they have reached the top of the 

 pole, as otherwise they continue growing until 

 killed by the frost, thus weakening the vines, while 

 the topmost portions seldom amount to much." 



