106 ENGLISH BOTAXY. 



flower of cliildhood, and is called hairn loort. The fanciful and poetical names of tliis 



little flower are too numerous to mention. The " wee modest crimson-tipped flower " 



of Burns, — 



*' 'Tis Flora's page ; in every place, 



In every season fresh and fair, 



It opens with perennial grace, 



And blossoms everywhere." 



Nowhere has the structure and general appearance of the Daisy been described so 

 pleasantly as in some letters on the elements of botany, by the celebrated philosojjher 

 and poet Rousseau ; but he does not appear to have thought of going further into the 

 subject than would be suggested by merely fexternal observation. We have at this day 

 so many appliances at hand to assist our investigations, that if we are disposed to make 

 use of them, we shall find in our little plant much that is most interesting, hitherto 

 imdescribed. Having determiued to study the Daisy in all its parts, no subject can 

 be obtained with less difficulty. Throughout Great Britain, we find its tiny bright 

 flowers springing ujd on every " lawn and grassy plot," by waysides, on mountain-slopes ; 

 and in almost every country in Europe may we find 



" These pearled Arcturi of the earth, 

 The constellated flowers that never set." 



In the extreme north of Europe, however, and in America, it is not common, and 

 is there treasured as a garden flower. Though not exclusively a British plant, yet so 

 closely is the Daisy associated with the earliest recollections of every native of the 

 British isles, that we can scarcely wonder that it is especially dear to the wanderer from 

 bome in distant lands, and that it brings back recollections of rural scenes such as 

 cannot be met with elsewhere. There is an old Celtic belief that each new-born babe 

 taken from earth became a spirit which scattered down on the land it had left some 

 new kind of flower to cheer its bereaved parents. The tale is thus told : — " The virgins 

 of Morven, to soothe the grief of Malvina, who had lost her infant son, sung to her — 

 * We have seen, oh Malvina ! — we have seen the infant you regret, reclining on a light 

 mist ; it approached us, and shed on our fields a harvest of new flowers. Look, oh 

 Malvina ! among these flowers we distinguish one with a golden disk, surrounded by 

 silver leaves ; a sweet tinge of crimson adorns its delicate rays ; waved by a gentle 

 ■wind, we might call it a little infant playing in a green meadow ; and the flower of 

 thy bosom has given a new flower to the hills of Cromla.' Since that day the daughters 

 of Morven have consecrated the Daisy to infancy. It is called the flower of innocence, 

 —the flower of the new-born." 



The roots of the Daisy have a slightly bitter, astringent taste, and contain, in 

 common with other plants of the same group, a portion of tannic acid. This principle 

 has, however, never been separated, and it is doubtful whether the old recipe of " daisy 

 roots and cream " had more than a fancied efficacy. In looking through old Gerai'de's 

 ■writings, we find the Daisy mentioned under the name of " bruise wort" as an unfailing 

 remedy in " all kinds of paines and aches," besides curing fevers, inflammations of the 

 liver, and " alle the inwarde parts." 



The Daisy appears as almost interwoven with the materials forming the green 

 carpet of our fields and pastures, so closely does it adapt itself to the circumstances in 

 which it is found. In barren and uncultivated laud it becomes a very dwarf, keeping 

 its leaves very near the ground, and with its flower-stalk scarcely raised above the 



