ILLUSTRATIONS. 107 



" As the sun retires in seas of gold, 

 Though yet thy twining stem, where'er it grows, 

 Hanging in rich festoons, no langour shows, 

 Thy fragile cup its beauties doth enfold, 



To shun the damp and coldness of the night, 

 Until awakened by the orb of light." 



Of the Boraginaceous family we have a familiar and lovely 

 example in " that blue and bright-eyed floweret of the brook, 

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

 Scorpion-grass/* so commonly met with " by rivulet or spring 

 or wet roadside." The name ' Forget-me-not ' is said to have 

 originated in this manner : Two betrothed lovers were stroll- 

 ing by the banks of the Danube, on a pleasant summer 

 evening in the flowery month of June, occupied in agree- 

 able and affectionate converse, when they observed the pretty 

 flower of the Water Scorpion-grass apparently floating on the 

 water. The bride elect looked upon the flower with admira- 

 tion, and supposing it to be detached, regarded it as being 

 carried to destruction. Her lover, regretting its fate and 

 wishing to preserve it, jumped into the river with this object ; 

 but as he seized the flower, he sank beneath the stream. 

 Making a final effort, he threw the flower upon the bank, re- 

 peating, as he was sinking for the last time, the words Ver- 

 giss mich nicht. Hence the Germans have called the flower 

 by a name which we translate ' Forget-me-not/ 



" That name ! it speaks in accents 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 !" 



This pretty Myosotis is a perennial herb, with stems more or 



* Myosotis palustris Plate 18 A. 



