4So FREAKS OF PLANT LIFE. 



Hood and his merry men. The first of May was also 

 called Robin Hood's day, and even Bishop Latimer 

 failed to secure an audience on that day, for all the 

 parish had gone abroad to gather for Robin Hoodj so 

 that he " was fain to give place to Robin Hood and 

 his men." 



We have been rambling all this night, 



And almost all this day ; 

 And now returned back again, 



We have brought you a branch of May. 



The historical associations of the " forget-me-not " 

 (or Myosotis arvensis) are narrated to the following 

 effect. Miss Strickland, writing of Henry of Lan- 

 caster, says, this royal adventurer, the banished and 

 aspiring Lancaster, appears to have been the person 

 who gave to the " forget-me-not " its emblematical 

 and poetical meaning, by uniting it, at the period of 

 his exile, in his collar of SS., with the initial letter of 

 his mot or watchword, " souveigne, vous de moy," thus 

 rendering it the symbol of remembrance. Henry is 

 said to have exchanged this token of goodwill and 

 remembrance with his hostess, who was at that time 

 wife of the Duke of Bretagne. If this be a true 

 tradition, then we must bid farewell to the poetical 

 romance of the drowned knight, who being carried 

 by the stream, as he gathered some of these flowers 

 for his lady, made use of the expression since asso- 

 ciated as its name. 



