188 COMPOSITE 



The Double Daisy of the garden is thought to be but a cultivated variety 

 of our meadow flower, and most of the varieties under culture spring 

 originally from this source, though some, like the B4llis sylvdticus and B. dnnua, 

 are introduced from the fields of Southern Europe. The transplantation of 

 our Daisy to a richer soil has changed the florets of the disk into broader 

 petals, and thus given us in the Double Daisy a head of red, white or varied 

 florets, without the yellow centre. In the cottage garden, the deep red or 

 white, or variegated Daisies, still make a very pretty though old-fashioned 

 border to the bed ; and varieties differing still further from the original 

 stock are to be seen yet in the Hen-and-Chicken, or Childing Daisy, by which 

 names the proliferous flower is commonly known in rural districts. 



44. Ox-eye (Chrysdnihemum). 



1. Great ^A^hite Ox-eye (6'. leucdnthemum). — Leaves oblong, blunt, 



cut, and pinnatifid at the base, those of the root inversely egg-shaped and 



stalked ; stem erect, and furrowed ; scales of the involucre with a narrow 



membranous margin ; annual. Scarcely less ornamental to the meadow 



land than even the Pearly Daisy are the tall clumps of Ox-eye, or Moon 



Daisy, as the flower is sometimes called, standing up on their stems one or 



two feet high. We have seen masses of this plant cultivated in gardens, and 



attaining there a greater height and size, forming a most beautiful ornament 



to the flower-bed with the pure white rays round the golden centre. The 



plant was formerly called Maudlin Daisy ; it is abundant in meadows and 



on waste places, and is a favourite flower with children, who are usually 



cautioned by careful mothers not to touch the eyes after handling it. The 



juice is bitter and acrid, and has an old repute of being obnoxious to insects. 



Professor Lindley remarks : " We are assured by Professor Cautraine that 



it is a certain remedy against fleas." The Bosnians place the plant in the 



bed of their domestic animals, and these insects are driven away in a short 



time. The Ox-eye blossoms in June and July. Miss Strickland refers to it 



in these lines : — 



" Here gay Chrysanthemums repo.se 

 And when stern tempests lour, 

 Their silken fringes gently close 



Against the shower : 

 And whirls the blow-ball's new-fledged pride 



In mazy rings on high, 

 Whose doAvny pinions once untied 

 Must onward fly." 



We are accustomed to apply the name Chrysanthemum almost exclusively 

 to one of the garden species of this genus, the beautiful Chinese Chrysanthe- 

 mums, which are the glory of the autumnal flower-bed, and which in their 

 turpentine-scented flowers yield us a bouquet long after other blossoms have 

 disappeared. The species C. sinense affords innumerable A^arieties, and forms 

 the great floral delight of the Chinese and Japanese, being largely cultivated 

 in pots by the mandarins. Miller reared this plant in the Chelsea Botanic 

 Garden in 1764; but it seems to have been lost, and it was reintroduced 

 from France in 1795. It was for a long time a very expensive plant, but is 

 now to be seen peeping through many a paling of the cottage garden, and is 

 accessible to every cultivator of flowers. 



