MICHAELMAS DA.ISY. 383 



MICHAELMAS DAISY. Asfer TradescantL 



Natural Order Compositi Radlati. Corymhiferce, Juss. 

 A Genus of the Syngenesia Polygamia Superflua 

 Class. 



This North American Star-wort first assisted to 

 illuminate the British parterre about the year 1633 : 

 it having been brought direct from Virginia by 

 JohnTradescant, jun., who visited the New World 

 for the express purpose of collecting plants, his 

 father having founded a garden of the first con- 

 sequence in those days at Lambeth, and being also 

 appointed gardener to King Charles the First. Mr. 

 Tradescant collected the first considerable museum 

 of Natural History ever formed in this country, and 

 we find that it was much frequented by the people 

 of fashion and consequence of his day. Botanists 

 have named this species Aster Tradescanti, in com- 

 pliment to his memory; but it has obtained the 

 more familiar name of Michaelmas Daisy, from 

 its flowering about that season of the year, and the 

 corollas being radiated and nearly of the size of the 

 common Daisy. 



