186 
LANGUAGE OF FLOWERS. 
brook. To see them crowned with the flowers 
that line its bank, you would take them for 
Nymphs holding their revels in honour of the 
Naiad of the Enchanted Oak. 
For some years this little flower has been 
cultivated in France with the greatest care, 
and it finds a ready sale in the markets in Paris. 
Phillips recommends its cultivation for the 
same purpose in this country, particularly to 
cottagers who live near towns; “as, by trans¬ 
planting the trailing branches from their bor¬ 
ders into small pots, they would find it a pro¬ 
fitable employ to send them to market, for few 
people would withstand the temptation to pur¬ 
chase these interesting flowers, that carry in 
their eye the tale of Forget-me-not.” 
The same writer says he has been informed 
that “the decoction or the juice of this plant has 
the peculiar property of hardening steel; and 
that, if edge-tools of that metal be made red-hot, 
and then quenched in the juice, and this process 
be repeated several times, the steel will become 
so hard as to cut iron, and even stone, without 
turning the edge.” 
