414 FLORA HISTORICA. 



MICHAELMAS DAISY. Aster TradescantL 



Natural Order Compositi Radiati. Corymbifei^a, 

 Juss : a Genus of the Syngenesia Polygamia 

 Suyerfiua Class. 



This North American Star- wort first assisted to 

 illuminate the British parterre about the year 

 1633 ; it having been brought direct from Vir- 

 ginia by John Tradescant, jun., who visited the 

 New World for the express purpose of collecting 

 plants, his father having founded a garden of the 

 first consequence of 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 of Aster Tradescanti, in compli- 

 ment to his memory ; but it has obtained the 

 more familiar name of Michaelmas Daisy, from 

 its flowering about that season of the year, and 



