The Gardeners' Magazine tells us that - "The flower which we now call the 'Forget-me-not ' (a name which originally appertained to the Speedwell) has become inseparably connected 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 flowers, and regretted their fatal destiny. At this point, 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 swept to his doom, 'Vergiss mich nicht.'

" ' And the lady fair of the knight so true, Aye remembered his hapless lot: And she cherished the flower of brilliant hue, And braided her hair with the blossoms blue, And she called it Forget-me-not.'

A recent writer 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 Marie, 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 characterizes the cavaliers of olden times. As they lingered on 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 waters. "There!" she exclaimed, 'that would be an opportunity for a cavalier of the olden days to show his devotion.' 'That's a challenge, cousin,' retorted Louis Napoleon, and in a second he was battling with the rough waters. He disappeared and reappeared to disappear and reappear again and again, but at length reached the shore safe and sound with his cousin's flower in his hand. ' Take it, Marie,' said he, as he shook himself; 'but never again talk to me of your cavalier of the olden time.' "

" 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. 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. There is rather a ghastly legend connected with the Forget-me-not which narrates that after the battle of Waterloo an immense quantity of these flowers sprung up on different parts of that sanguinary field, the soil of which had been enriched by the blood of heroes".

All this is poetry, but we know of some very cold prose connected with the flower. An English gentleman gave his gardener the privilege of showing visitors through the beautiful grounds, and permitted him to take any largess that might be given him freely, but on no account was he to ask or hint that such feeing was expected. He simply planted a bed of these pretty flowers near the place of exit, and when, after giving his visitors the names of every thing on the place, if they were about to depart without his customary tip, with a remarkably impressive fingering he would whisper, "and that flower is the Forget-me-not, ma'am".