268 
LANGUAGE OF FLOWERS. 
as at the approach of night. It is related that 
Venus one day dropped one of her mirrors. 
A shepherd picked it up ; hut, no sooner had 
he cast his eyes on this glass, which possessed 
the property of embellishing whatever it re¬ 
flected, than he forgot his mistress, and did 
nothing hut admire himself. Love, fearful 
of the consequences of such a silly error, 
broke the mirror, and changed its fragments 
into this pretty plant, which has ever since 
retained the name of Venus’s Looking-glass. 
Folly, Columbine. This graceful flower has 
been made the emblem of folly, but whether 
on account of the party-colour which it fre¬ 
quently takes in the garden, or in allusion 
to the shape of the nectary, which turns over, 
like the caps of the old jesters, or those 
which painters give to Folly, we are left to 
divine. 
Foresight, Holly. Page 243. 
Forgetfulness, Moonwort. This plant has not 
received its name from its seed, as it has been 
generally supposed, but from the partition 
which divides its broad, flat pods, and is round 
like the moon. Ren<i, duke of Bar and Lor- 
