THE TOKEN FLOWER. 241 In Johnson's "Musical Museum," we find the fragment of a repulsive legendary Ballad, with a similar burthen to that of the foregoing. There is also a traditional Ballad upon record, of which we regret our inability to procure more than the commencing stanza: Ae king's dochter said to anither, Broom blooms bonnie, an' grows sae fair, We'll gae ride like sister and brither, But we'll never gae down to the broom nae mair. Again, Sir Walter Scott causes his Effie Deans, in the "Heart of Mid-Lothian," to sing a stanza of a similar choral Ballad : The elfin knight sat on the brae, The broom grows bonnie, the broom grows fair, And we darna' gang down to the broom nae mair. THE TOKEN FLOWER. Air.-"PRETTY PEG OF DERBY." How bonnie is the glen in the greenwood shaw, sunny summer dells, Where the woodland music swells O'er the lily, and the bonnie blue Forget-me-not. O tell me a flower in the garden or wild, So modest, and so peerless, as summer's fair child; Even the blush celestial-rose, Must yield to the bonnie blue Forget-me-not. Y By the cress-cover'd fountain where its sparkling waters run, Thy azure star with golden breast is smiling to the sun, While the violets that bloom Round the fane at Beauty's tomb, Are gemm'd with the bonnie blue Forget-me-not. Dearest emblem of Friendship, thou beauty of the grove! Thy pale blue eye, like my Laura's, beams with love; And when Laura courts the shade, Whisper softly to the maid, That thy name, lovely flower! is Forget-me-not. Marsh Scorpion grass, the Myosotis Palustris of botanists, is a wild flower possessing uncommon beauty. This Token Flower, the Forget-me-not, is the acknowledged emblem of Friendship throughout every country of civilized Europe. Five species of this beautiful genus of plants are natives of Scotland. As I was a-walking one morning in May, As I went out on an evening clear, As I went out on a May morning, Ask me no more where Jove bestows, Beauty hath mine eyes assail'd, Beauty sat bathing by a spring, Bereft of breath, yit nocht from lyfe depoised, Bleak Soracte meets my sight, Calling to mind the heavenly feature, De'il tak the wars that hurried Billy from me, Each man with silence stops his mouth, and hears, 116 Glaidstanes is gone! his corpis doth here dwell, 131 CONTENTS. 245 Go lovely rose, Good-morrow to the day so fair, Haste, haste, post-haste, make haste, and away, He that loves a rosy cheek, Heigh-ho, away the mare, Hey down a down, did Dian sing, Her lamp the glow-worm lend me, How bonny is the glen in the greenwood shaw, I have no home of refuge here, I'll gie thee jewels, an' I'll gie thee rings, I'll go to my love, where he lies in the deep, I watched the Wind-flower as she, leaf by leaf, If I live to grow old, as I find I go down, If love be life, I long to die, In Flora's train the graces wait, 224 |