184 
LANGUAGE OF FLOWERS, 
Linneaix appellation is JVtyosotis palnstris, and its 
common English name, Mouse-ear Scorpion-grass. 
It is not surprising that the Forget-me-not should 
have become a favourite with our own poets as 
well as those of Germany. In Gbthe’s “ Lay of 
the Imprisoned Knight,” translated by Lord Francis 
Leveson Gower, are these stanzas : 
Not on the mountain’s shelving side, 
Nor in the cultivated ground, 
Nor in the garden’s painted pride, 
The flower I seek is found. 
Where Time on sorrow’s page of gloom 
Has fixed its envious lot, 
Or swept the record from the tomb. 
It says Forget-me-not. 
And this is still the loveliest flower. 
The fairest of the fair, 
Of all that deck my lady’s bower, 
Or bind her floating hair. 
It has been figured as a device on the seals of 
lovers who have sung its praises in their verses. 
To flourish in my favourite bower, 
To blossom round my cot, 
I cultivate the little flower 
They call Forget-me-not. 
