pick some blossoms of the myosotis for his lady-love, was drowned, his
last words as he threw the flowers on the bank being "Forget me not."
Another legend, already noticed, would associate it with the magic
spring-wort, which revealed treasure-caves hidden in the mountains.
The traveler enters such an opening, but after filling his pockets with
gold, pays no heed to the fairy's voice, "Forget not the best," i.e., the
spring-wort, and is severed in twain by the mountain clashing together.
In speaking of the various beliefs relative to plant life in a previous
chapter, we have enumerated some of the legends which would trace the
origin of many plants to the shedding of human blood, a belief which is a
distinct survival of a very primitive form of belief, and
enters very largely into the stories told in classical mythology. The dwarf
elder is said to grow where blood has been shed, and it is nicknamed in
Wales "Plant of the blood of man," with which may be compared its English
name of "death-wort." It is much associated in this country with the Danes,
and tradition says that wherever their blood was shed in battle, this plant
afterwards sprang up; hence its names of Dane-wort, Dane-weed, or Dane's-
blood. One of the bell-flower tribe, the clustered bell-flower, has a similar
legend attached to it; and according to Miss Pratt, "in the village of Bartlow
there are four remarkable hills, supposed to have been thrown up by the
Danes as monumental memorials of the battle fought in 1006 between
Canute and Edmund Ironside. Some years ago the clustered bell-flower was
largely scattered about these mounds, the presence of which the cottagers
attributed to its having sprung from the Dane's blood," under which name
the flower was known in the neighbourhood.
The rose-coloured lotus or melilot is, from the legend, said to have been
sprung from the blood of a lion slain by the Emperor Adrian; and, in short,
folk-lore is rich in stories of this kind. Some legends are of a more romantic
kind, as that which explains the origin of the wallflower, known in Palestine
as the "blood-drops of Christ." In bygone days a castle stood near the river
Tweed, in which a fair maiden was kept prisoner, having plighted her troth
and given her affection to a young heir of a hostile clan. But blood having
been shed between the chiefs on either side, the deadly hatred thus
engendered forbade all thoughts of a union. The lover tried various
stratagems to obtain his fair one, and at last succeeded in gaining admission
attired as a wandering troubadour, and eventually arranged that she should
effect her escape, while he awaited her arrival with an armed force. But this
plan, as told by Herrick, was unsuccessful:--
"Up she got upon a wall,
Attempted down to slide withal;
But the silken twist untied,
She fell, and, bruised, she died.
Love, in pity to the deed,