wonder flower

[Ger. wunderblume.] Anthrop.: A popular name in Teutonic folk-tales for a flower endowed with miraculous power, especially with regard to the discovery of buried treasure. Grimm thinks that the name Forget-menot applied to the Germander Speedwell and Myosotis has reference to this supposed miraculous power, and that the "sentimental" explanation came later. (See extract.) "The folk-tales simply call it a beautiful wonder flower, which the favored person finds and sticks in his hat: all at once entrance and exit stand open for him to the treasure of the mountain. If inside the cavern he has filled his pockets, and, bewildered at the sight of the val. uables, had laid aside his hat, a warning voice rings in his ear as he departs, Forget not the best! twinkling all has disappeared, and the road is never to be found again."-Grimm: Deut. Mythol. (Eng. ed.), iii. 971, 972. In a IMG:content-0987.png:[blocks in formation] 4537 won-der-fül-ly, adv . [Eng. wonderful ; -ly .] In a wonderful manner or degree; in a manner or degree to excite wonder, surprise, or admiration; marvelously, remarkably. "God had wonderfully brought this precious volume to light."-Macaulay: Hist. Eng., ch. xi.