Aide-mémoire

We find comfort in many strange places, Wikipedia is a case in point. You type in Forget-me-not and you find that you have a photo of “one of a large number of plants bearing that name” – isn’t that nice? For once, I can feel reasonably confident in saying today’s picture is a Forget-me-not.

In the Middle Ages blue was the colour of chastity and steadfastness. Whether this sprang from the same source as the forget-me-not’s name, or if the one influenced the other – and if so, which did what to which – we can’t know at this temporal distance. Which, of course, creates an ideal opportunity for speculation.

As far as I can see, you have two options:

First. A knight and his lady were walking by the water. He stooped to gather her a posy of flowers. Because of the weight of his armour he toppled over, fell in the river and drowned. With his last breath he threw her the posy, calling, ‘Forget me not.’

Second. It was late on Saturday evening and God, thinking He’d got through a good lot these last six days, was just tidying His desk – ready to pack up, go home and put His feet up. Suddenly, He heard a small voice whisper ‘Forget me not’. All He had left was a little patch of blue stuff, so He used it to put together a small flower, and said, ‘Forget-me-not shall be your name’.

Take your pick.