THE FORGET-ME-NOT ' i6i 
their simple beauty will render any apology for their inser- 
tion here unnecessary. 
The Wee Flower. 
A bonny wee flower grew green the wuds. 
Like a twinklin star amang the cluds^ 
And the langer it livit the greener it grew^ 
For hwas lulled by the winds and fed by the dew. 
When the mornin sun rase frae its eastern ha’; 
This bonny wee flow’er was the earliest o’ a’ 
To open its buds sealed up in the dew. 
And spread out its leaves o’ the yellow and blue; 
When the winds were still, and the sun rode high, 
And the clear mountain burn ran wimplin by. 
When the wee birds sang, and the wilderness bee 
Was floatin awa like a clud o’er the sea, 
This bonny wee flower was bioomin unseen, 
The sweet child o’ simmer in its rokely green ; 
And when the nicht clud grew dark o’er the plain, 
When the stars were out, and the moon on the wane, 
When the bird and the bee were gane to rest, 
And the dews o’ the nicht the green earth press’d, 
The bonny wee flower lay smiling asleep, 
Like a beaiitifu’ pearl in the dark-green deep; 
And when hairst had come, and the simmer was past, 
And the dead leaves were strewn on the circling blast, 
The bonny wee flower grew naked and bare, 
And its wee leaves shrunk i’ the frozen air; 
So this bonny wee flower hung down its braw head, 
And the bricht mornin sun flung its beams on its bed, 
And the pale stars looked out — but the wee flower was 
dead. 
The scorpion-grass has received great attention from 
botanists ; and the plants composing this genus are in some 
of their species so similar that their chief mark of dis- 
tinction has been found in the manner of growth of the 
hairs which are upon their foliage. The degree of hairi- 
ness’ upon plants is not a permanent character, as it 
varies with culture, situation, or other accidental circum- 
stances; but Sir James Smith has observed that the 
direction of the growth of the hairs or the bristles oo a 
