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England, the country folk of many parts, firmly believed it to be
the remains of a falling star, for after a wet, stormy night, these
Flowers of Heaven will often be found growing where they were
not to be seen the previous evening.
F L O W E R IN G RO D .—There is a legend in the Apocryphal
Gospel of Mary, according to which Joseph was chosen for
Mary’s husband because his rod budded into flower, and a dove
settled upon the top of it. In pictures of the marriage of Joseph
and Mary, the former generally holds the flowering rod. The rod
by which the Lord demonstrated that He had chosen Aaron to be
His priest, blossomed with Almond-flowers, and was laid up in the
Ark (see Almond).
F O R G E T -M E -N O T .—The Forget-me-not is a name which,
like the Gilliflower, has been applied to a variety of plants. For
more than two hundred years it was given, in England, France,
and the Netherlands, to the ground Pine, Ajuga Chamapitys. From
the middle of the fifteenth century until 1821, this plant was in all
the botanical books called Forget-me-not, on account of the
nauseous taste which it leaves in the mouth. Some of the old
German botanists gave the name Vergiss mein nicht t o th e Chamadrys
vera fcemina, or Teucrium Botrys. Forglemnimigicke, th e eoxxesy>ondxn.g^
Danish name, was given to the Veronica chamedrys. This plant was
in English called the Speedwell, from its blossoms falling off
and flying away, and “ Speedwell ” being an old form of leave-
taking, equivalent to “ Farewell ” or “ Good-bye.” In the days of
chivalry, a plant, whose identity has not been ascertained, was
called " Souveigne vous de moy,” and was woven into collars. In
1465, one of these collars was the prize at a famous joust, fought
between Lord Scales, brother to Elizabeth Woodville, wife of
Edward IV., and a French knight of Burgundy. Certain German
botanists, as far back as the sixteenth century, seem, however, to
have given the name Forget-me-not to the Myosotis palustris; and
this name has become inseparably connecfted with the flower, borne
on the wings of the following poetic legend:—A knight and his
lady-love, who were on the eve of being united, whilst strolling on
the bank of the blue Danube, saw a spray of these pretty flowers
floating on the waters, which seemed ready to carry it away. The
affianced bride admired the delicate beauty of the blossoms, and
regretted their fatal destiny. At this hint, the lover did not hesitate
to plunge into the stream. He soon secured the flowers, but the
current was too strong for him, and as it bore him past his despairing
mistress, he flung the fatal flowers on the bank, exclaiming,
as he was swept to his doom, “ Vergiss mich nicht
“ And the lady fair of the knight so true,
Aye remembered his hapless lo t ;
And she cherished the flower of brilliant hue,
And braided her hair with the blossoms blue.
And she called it Forget-me-not.”
According to Grimm, the original Forget-me-not was a certain
Luck-flower, concerning which there is a favourite legend in Germany
(see K e y - f l o w e r ) . And there is another traditional origin
of the flower, which for antiquity should have the precedence of
all others. According to this version, Adam, when he named the
plants in Paradise, cautioned them not to forget what he called
them. One little flower, however, was heedless, and forgot its
name. Ashamed of its inattention and forgetfulness, the flower
asked the father of men, “ B y what name dost thou call m e ? ”
“ Forget-me-not,” was the reply; and ever since that humble
flower has drooped its head in shame and ignominy. A
fourth origin of the name “ Forget-me-not” is given by Miss
Strickland in her work on,the Queens of England. Writing of
Henry of Lancaster (afterwards Henry IV.), she sa y s :—“ This
royal adventurer, the banished and aspiring Lancaster, appears to
have been the person who gave to the Myosotis its emblematical
and poetical meaning, by writing it, at the period of his exile, on his
collar of S .S ., with the initial letter of his mot or watchwoxd, Souveigne
vous de moy, thus rendering it the symbol of remembrance.” It
was with his hostess, at the time wife of the Duke of Bretagne, that
Henry exchanged this token of goodwill and remembrance.— ~
The Italians call the Myosotis, Nontiscordar di me, and in one of their
ballads represent the flower as the embodiment of the spirit of a
young girl who was drowned, and transformed into the Myosotis
growing by the river’s banks. The ancient English name of the
Myosotis palustris was Mouse - E a r - Scorpion - G ra s s ; “ Mouse - E a r ”
describing the oval leaves, and “ Scorpion ” the curve of the onesided
raceme, like a scorpion’s tail. According to some investigators,
the Forget-me-not is the Sun-flower of the classics—the
flower into which poor Clytie was metamorphosed—the pale blossom
which, says Ovid, held firmly by the root, still turns to the sun she
loves. Cgesalpinus called it Heliotropium, and Gerarde figured it as
such.' (See H e l i o t r o p e ) . The Germans are fond of planting
the Forget-me-not upon their graves, probably on account of its
name • for the beauty of the flower is lost if taken far from the
water.’ It is said that after the battle of Waterloo, an immense
quantity of Forget-me-nots sprung up upon different parts of that
sanguinary field, the soil of which had been enriched by the blood
of heroes. A writer in ‘ All the Year Round ’ remarks, that possibly
the story of the origin of the Forget-me-not’s sentimental
designation may have been in the mind of the Princess Mane of
Baden, that Winter day, when, strolling along the banks of the
Rhine with her cousin, Louis Napoleon, she inveighed against the
degeneracy of modern gallants, vowing they were incapable of
emulating the devotion to beauty that charaaerised the cavaliers of
olden times. As they lingered on the causeway-dykes, where the
Neckar joins the Rhine, a sudden gust of wind carried away a
flower from the hair of the princess, and sent it into the rushing.
i .1