THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 39 



only seen in cultivation either in gardens or on lawns. It 

 makes a neat and pretty border plant. 



In the United States, the plant usually known as daisy 

 is not this Bellis perennis, but the ox-eye or white weed, 

 Chrysanthemum leucanthemum of science. At the East it is 

 one of the widely spread and pernicious weeds. For all that 

 it is a "thing of beauty and a joy forever." The French mar- 

 guerite or Paris daisy in some respects is like it, but is shrub- 

 by, from four to ten feet high, more delicate in aspect and 

 hailing from the Azores. It is Chrysanthemum frutescens. 



Then we have the daisy fleabanes of the genus Erigeron, 

 looking like asters but mainly blooming earlier and with more 

 numerous and delicate rays. The first of these to appear is 

 early summer or late spring is rc>bin's plantation, but the most 

 beautiful is the Philadelphia fleabane. This is common about 

 the White Mountain foothills and in similar locations 

 throug'hout the North. 



Somehow or other, the name "oxeye" has been misap- 

 plie'd' to the cone flower (Riidbeckia hirta) a member of the 

 genus to which the parent of the too familiar "gol'd'en glow" 

 belongs. These are in no sense daisies, but apart from names, 

 or may be in despite of them, they are among our showiest 

 wildflowers. Cone flower is said to have migrated from the 

 West with hayseed and is steadily extending its range. It 

 has coarse haii"y stems and foliage and large orange-colored 

 heads with chocolate cone or disk. It is splendid in cultiva- 

 tion, ever increasing in size, while in meadows as one views it 

 from car windows it spreads a gorgeous and unsurpassed 

 carpet. 



This plant will illustrate the use of the word weed. A 

 w^eed is a plant that grows out of place, where not desired or 

 needed or where it is a positive nuisance. It follows that 

 the same plant may be a weed or flower, in the familiar sense, 

 according to situation or environment. In the field the 



