52 1-I.()\V1'.RS Ol' TH1-: MI'.I.DS AND Ml'.ADOWS 



Iiectic tc\rrs ciuiscil 1 1\ drinking- cdld w.itcr when oxcrhcalecl. In 

 I'lcrmaiU' it was calcn wilh meal as a polhcrb. Callle, horses, and 

 sheep ill) not touch it. 



ChaiKXT cHilo^i/c'il it in his clay: — 



In s|)ri:i;il OIK- called Se of ihc 1 )aie, 

 riic 1 )aisie, a floure white and rede, 

 And ill French called La hel Margarete, 

 U coniniendable floure above all flouris in the meede, 

 Than love I most those flouris white and rede, 

 Such that men callcn Daisies in our 'I'own. 



Essential Si'i:(ii'ic Characters: — 



152. Bcllis /'ciciniis. L. — No aerial stem, Ijiit prostrate rhizome, 

 leaves radical. oljo\alc-, crcnate, dentate, flowerheads on sca])es, white 

 ray florets, vcllow disk tlorets. Some tlowers have all li^ulate florets, 

 or all tuhiilar tlorets, bracts in one mw. 



Milfoil (Achillea Millefolium, L.) 



This common Composite is tt)und throughout the North Temperate 

 and Arctic Zones in Arctic Europe, Temperate and cold North 

 Asia, the Himalayas, and N. America, but is not found in any early 

 deposits. It is found in all parts of Great Britain, and up to about 

 4000 ft. in the Hio'hlands. 



Yarrow or Miltoil is common in all sorts of hal)itats up and dov\n 

 the country. It is to be foimd in fields and meadows, esi^ecially dry 

 pastures, along the roadside and on waste ground, preferring sandy 

 soil, and growing on the margins ot arable land, allotments, and 

 gardens, in which last it is encouraged for its fever-curing properties. 



The glistening leaves of the Milfoil with its thousands of delicate 

 leaflets bathed in silvery dew on a fro.sty morning are a familiar sight 

 not soon forgotten. The stems are erect, rigid, striate, and prostrate 

 below, but ascend at the tip, and are angular. The leaves have the 

 lobes on each side of the stalk divided again, slightly hairy, alternate, 

 linear, narrowly elliptical, the radical leaves stalked, the segments very 

 slender and narrow. The bottom of the stem is covered with a dense 

 cobweb-like tlown. 



The flowers are numerous, and borne in close terminal corymbs in 

 which the flower-stalks are shortened and form a flat-topped llower- 

 head. The ray florets are large in proportion, equalling half the whorl 

 of leaf-like organs. The leaf-like organs are downy with a brownish 

 margin blunt and hollow. The disk florets are funnel-shaped with a 



