DAISY. 43 



All old astrological writer tells us that this 

 plant is under the sign Cancer, and under the do- 

 minion of Venus, and therefore good to cure all 

 the pains caused by the fair goddess, particularly 

 those of the breast ; we therefore recommend all 

 the lack-a-daisy swains to hasten to the meadows, 

 and there give thanks to nature for having scat- 

 tered this plant so bountifully : — it is a crop for 

 which the farmer never prays, it being consi- 

 dered a troublesome weed in pasture lands, where 

 it occupies a large portion of ground to the exclu- 

 sion of grass and other profitable herbs : its acrid 

 taste is ungrateful to cattle, and it is even rejected 

 on the common by the close-biting geese. 



The French name of Paquerctte is given to this 

 flower because it blossoms most at the approach of 

 Pdques (Easter). The English name of Daisy is 

 derived from a Saxon word, meaning Day's eye, in 

 which way it is written by Ben Jonson ; and 

 Chaucer calls it the u eie of the daie. 5 ' Shakspeare 

 writes daisies, and Howel calls them days-eyes, — 

 6i the woods put forth their blossoms, the earth her 

 primroses and days-eyes." We presume that this 

 flower was called days-eye, from the nature of its 

 blossom, which expands at the opening of day and 

 closes at sunset. 



The little daizie, that at evening closes. 



Spenser. 



