Rhodora 
JOURNAL OF 
THE NEW ENGLAND BOTANICAL CLUB 
Vol. 5 
July, 1903 No. 55 
CHRYSANTHEMUM LEUCANTHEMUM AND THE 
AMERICAN WHITE WEED. 
M. L. FERNALD. 
No plant in the eastern United States and Canada, it is safe to say, 
is more familiarly known than the White Weed, Marguerite, or Ox-eye 
Daisy, the Chrysanthemum Leucanthemum of our floras. So abundant 
is the plant in all settled regions that, like many others of our common- 
est plants, it is very generally ignored by the botanical collector. 
From late May to August the piant whitens with its showy heads 
millions of acres of field and meadow, and in the trail of the explorer 
it is among the first field-plants to make its appearance. Its closest 
botanical affinity is with a large group of Old World species, and it 
was apparently not noted in New England as a wild plant by Josselyn 
in the 17th century, though in 1785 Manasseh Cutler recorded it 
from about Boston “in fields and pastures .... very injurious to grass 
land.”! These facts together with the tendency of the plant during 
more than a century to follow closely the path of the white man in 
America have led to the natural conclusion that our White Daisy 
was brought to us within historic time from Europe; and, as it 
strongly resembles the Old World Chrysanthemum Leucanthemum, 
the American plant has been universally accepted as identical with 
that European species. 
The common American plant scarcely needs special description, 
yet it is important to note that, as it occurs in the fields and clear- 
ings of New England and as represented in the Gray Herbarium from 
many stations ranging from Nova Scotia to the Rocky Mountains, 
the Gulf of Mexico and southern California, the long-petioled obovate 
! Mem. Am. Acad. i. 483. 
