A SCRAP OF PLANT LORE.

Press, Volume L, Issue 15017, 11 July 1914, Page 8

A SCRAP OF PLANT LORE.

Often wo hear attempts to explain the hames or colours ot plants, and this is the story of why the forget-me-not was called so; and a few other things.' In olden days, when Thor of all was head, Nanna and "Baldur the Beautifyl" were wed; and Baldur was not immortal, which troubled Nanna very sorely, indeed. At her petition Thor consented to give Baldur immortality, if she secured a" promi-jo of goodwill from every animal and plant o_ earth, so "Nanna, the Faithful," set out on the expedition. ' Loki, tho God of Envy, followed her, in disguise of a white crow—at the time all crows were white—and, first, .he settled on a littlo blue flower in hopes that Nanna might pass it by; but the littlo blue flower cried out "Forget-me-not," and ever since we have known it by that name. Then Loki flew far ahead into an oak tree, and sat on a mistletoe, and though Nanna secured the vow of goodwill from, the oak. she overlooked the mistletoe in her hurry, and returned to tell Thor she had accomplished her mission. One day, supposing Baldur to be invulnerable, the other divinities amused themselves by shooting arrows at him as he stood by a holly busK. . All went well until Loki dipped an arrow in mistletoe juice, and gave it to Baldur"s brother, who fired it unthinkingly at Baldur, so that it pie.Vj-:*!- ,- ---his heart, and he fell down dead. Some droos of his blood splashed on the holly, which accounts for the redness of its berries; and the mistletoe mourned until its fruit became like tears; and, as a mark of his anger, Thor made all crows black. Now, that story may or may not explain truly, but all tho same it is a pretty myth."