The Forget-Me-Not. 99 



recommend the cultivation of this rustic little beauty, and par- 

 ticularly so to those cottagers who live near towns, as by trans- 

 planting the trailing branches from their borders into small pots, 

 they would find it a profitable employ to send them to market, 

 for few people would withstand the temptation of purchasing 

 these alluring flowers that carry in their eye the tale of Forget- 

 me-not. 



We have lately found the Myosotis Versicolor growing in con- 

 siderable quantities on the graves in a church-yard. This beauti- 

 ful but miniature flower exhibits a rare instance of plants pro- 

 ducing flowers on the same stem of such opposite colors as blue 

 and yellow. We observed several plants of this species of myo- 

 sotis, with some flowers perfectly yellow, some crimson, and 

 others blue, all blossoming at one time on the same stem. 



We are informed that the decoction, or the juice of the Myo- 

 sotis Palustris, has the peculiar property of hardening steel, and 

 that if edged tools of that metal be made red hot, and then 

 quenched in the juice or decoction, and this repeated several 

 times, the steel will become so hard as to cut iron, or even stone, 

 without turning the edge. * 



In the Netherlands it is common to make a synip of the juice 

 of the Myosotis, which is given as a remedy against consump- 

 tive coughs. 



It belongs to the Natural Order Boraginaceae, which are herbs 

 or shrubby plants of an innocent mucilaginous nature, with just 

 enough astringency to make the juice (from holding in solution 

 the salts which cause it) of a demulcent and pectoral nature. 

 The germen is deeply divided into four lobes, having the style 

 proceeding from their base, which becomes, when in fruit, little 

 nuts. The seeds, as a general rule, contain little or no albu- 

 men. 



Where flows the fountain silently 



It blooms, a lonely flower, 

 Blue as the beauty of the sky, 

 It speaks, like kind fidelity 



Through fortune's sun and shower 



Forget-me-not. F. G. Halleck. 



