36 FLORA HTSTORICA. 



Such that men callen Daisies in our town : 

 To them I have so great affectioun, 

 As I sayd erst, when comen is the Maie, 

 That in my hedde there dawneth me no daie, 

 That I nam up, and walking- in the mede 

 To seen this floure ayenst the sunne sprede. 

 "When it upriseth early by the morrow, 

 That blissful sight softeneth my sorrow, 

 So glad am I, when that I have presence 

 Of it, to done it all reverence, 

 As she that is of all floures the floure, 

 Fulfilled of all vertue and honoure, 

 And every ylike faire, and fresh of hewe, 

 And ever I love it, and ever ylike newe, 

 And ever shall, until mine herte die, 

 All sweare I not, of this I woll not lie. 

 There loved no wight hotter in his life, 

 And when that it is eve I renne hlithe, 

 As soon as ever the sunne ginneth west, 

 To seen this floure, how it woll go to rest, 

 For fear of night, so hateth she darknesse ; 

 Her chere is plainly spred in the hrightnesse 

 Of the sunne, for there it woll unclose. 



Sliakspcare celebrates this flower in his favourite 

 song to Spring. 



"When Daisies pied, and violets hlue, 



And lady-smocks all silver white, 

 And cuckoo huds of yellow hue, 



Do paint the meadows with delight. 



Love's Labour s Lost. 



The lines of Montgomery, as well as those of 

 Burns, are too beautiful to have a verse omitted, as 

 our " Meadows trim, with Daisies pied/' are seen 

 with additional interest when these poems are re- 

 called to our memory. The former says — 



