THE WILD CAMOMILE 



of the vegetable kingdom, just as man stands at 

 the head of the animal world. 

 • But, it may be said, there are oak, elm, and 

 pine trees ; surely these must come before such 

 simple and insignificant weeds of the field ? Then 

 I may make reply that there are elephants, whales, 

 and other huge living animals, to say nothing of 

 the greater monsters whose fossil remains record 

 their earlier existence ; but, nevertheless, in rela- 

 tive development man is far superior to all these, 

 and much more highly evolved. Indeed, for such 

 comparisons, size can be no criterion whatever. 

 This is well illustrated by the fact that the highest 

 amongst British animals is the bat ; these little, 

 weird, nocturnal animals rank next to man in the 

 mammalia of the British Isles. 



In view, then, of the fact that the wild camo- 

 mile has so well established itself that it is now 

 one of the most successful plants in the vegetable 

 kingdom, it should prove interesting to consider a 

 few details of its history, especially as these details 

 throw considerable light on the reasons for its 

 success in life, and show how it came to hold such 

 eminence in rank. However, before going farther, 

 I had better say that there are other plants very 

 nearly related, such as the familiar ox-eye daisy 

 (Fig. 4, Plate 3), the yellow corn-marigold, the 

 feverfew chrysanthemum, and similar plants (not 

 forgetting the common field daisy), which are just 

 as successful in life ; and what I state here con- 

 cerning the camomile may be applied (allowing for 

 insignificant differences of detail) in a general way 



3 



