Ogden Standard-Examiner | 1920-07-27 | Page 5 | Every Flower Has a Story All Its Own

oo EVERY FLOWER MAS A STORY ALL ITS OWN THE MIGNONETTE Your qualities surpass your charms" Is the message the sweet-scented sweet-scented nilj?none(te 6ends you The origin of this meaning Is found in a story told of Count of Walsthim, of Saxony, who was engaged to Amelle yon Kordbourg, a beautiful but frivol ous and coquettish woman Charlotte, her cousin, who was poor and plain, had been broupnt up with her. Choso Mignonette, j One evening at a party, it was suggested sug-gested that each lady choose a flower, flow-er, and the reclp.ent of it write an ap propriate verse Amelie. who had flirt eel devotedly all tvening with a rather dashing but disreputable officer, chose a rose, while Charlotte's choirs wns -a mignonette Desirous of recalling Amelie Ame-lie to a sense of proprletj, she asked the count what verse he had prepared for the rose. The count saw through this affectionate ruse and wrote: "Its life Is granted for a da... its pleasures ! but a moment stay" To Charlotte he I .in led this line about the mignonette "Irs qualities surpass its charms" A little later he married Charlotte, nnd added a sprig of mignonette to his coat of -arms. Meaning of Name. To the ancients this flower was known as reseda, which means to assuage. It was used as a sedative for pain and for reducing swellings and in flam mat ion The flower was Introduced into Fouthern Prance from Egypt about the eighteenth centurj It became popular and was known as mignonette, which signifies a little darling. TIim flower is now widely cultivaied in France because of the fragrant per fume It yields.