Ch. X XI. ] CLASSES AND ORDERS. 127 
it Innocence, of which it is no unapt emblem, others term it 
Forget-me-not ; but as the latter name is appropriated to several 
other flowers, | would recommend the former. This little flower 
tises but a few inches from the ground; it is surrounded by 
tufts of leaves Clustered around the root; it grows in great lux- 
uriance upon sloping banks, dotting the meadows and sides of 
rivulets ; often appearing in large patches, which form a soft 
and fragrant bed; it invites the child weary of play to repose on 
its flowery turf, and thus it becomes associated with recollec- 
tions of the playful and happy innocence of early days. 
544, A lady of New England, who learned Botany at a dis- 
tance from the scenes of her childhood, though she found a 
great many splendid and beautiful flowers to examine by the 
aid of her favourite study, was very anxious to meet with the 
little pale blue meadow-flower which had flourished in such 
luxuriance around the home of her infancy; she examined 
books to find drawings or descriptions of it, and searched the 
fields for living specimens, but none seemed to answer to the 
picture in her mind, and she at length gave up the little flower. 
as a thing of mere fancy, which had mingled with the indis- 
tinct recollections of early days. But on returning to her na- 
tive place, as she was riding out one fine day in spring, a mossy 
bank appeared to her delighted eye, bespangled with the flower 
of Innocence, and presenting the very image she had so often 
driven from her mind as a creation of fancy. She alighted, 
and after feasting her eyes on the sight once so familiar, and 
enjoying the freshness of the flowery turf, she carefully placed 
in a book some tufts of the little plant, and on going home, 
sought out its name and place in botanical arrangement. 
545. The lady saw that it had four stamens of nearly equal 
length, and one pistil, and that it must therefore be described 
under the fourth class, first order ; the little calyx was four cleft, 
it supported a corolla having a small tube, and spreading into a 
flat border with four petal like divisions, which resembled a 
cross. The little leaves were ovate and radical ; and the stem 
spread out into small branches, bearing upon them the flowers. 
Then the lady by examining the different descriptions of plants 
in this class and order, found that her little favourite was known 
by botanists by the name of noustronta cerulea,* the generic 
name being derived from Houston, the person who first describ- 
\ 
* Pronounced cerulea. 
543. What is said of the flower called Innocence ? 
544, What is said of a lady who wished to meet with this little 
flower after she had studied Botany? 
