186 
LANGUAGE OF FLOWERS. 
near the brook. To see then crowned with the 
flowers that line its bank, you would take them foi 
Nymphs holding their revels in honour of the Naxad 
of the Enchanted Oak. 
For some years this little flower has been culti¬ 
vated 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 transplanting 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 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 juide, and this process be repeated 
several times, the steel will become so hard as to cut 
iron, and even stone, without turning the edge.” 
