3o8 Q?ant bore, heger^j, anil "bijfic/. 



' ' Hast thou not a book in thy cheste. 

 The great goodnesse of the Queene Alceste 

 That turned was into a Daisie ? 

 She that for her husband chose to die, 

 And eke to gone to hell rather than lie. 

 And Hercules rescued her, parde, 

 And brought her out of hell again to bliss ? 

 And I answered againe, and said ' Yes,' 

 Now I knowe her, and this is good Alceste, 

 The Daisie, and mine own hertes rest? " 



Ossian gives another origin. Malvina, weeping beside the tomb 

 of Fingal, for Oscar and his infant son, is comforted by the maids 

 of Morven, who narrate how they have seen the innocent infant 

 borne on a Hght mist, pouring upon the fields a fresh harvest of 

 flowers, amongst which rises one with golden disc, encircled with 

 rays of silver, tipped with a delicate tint of crimson. " Dry thy 

 tears, O Malvina," cried the maidens; " the flower of thy bosom 



has given a new flower to the hills of Cromla." The ancient 



English name of the flower was Day's Eye, in which way it was 

 written by Ben Jonson ; and Chaucer calls it the " ee of the daie." 

 Probably it received this designation from its habit of closing its 



petals at night and during rainy weather. There is a popular 



superstition, that if you omit to put your foot on the first Daisy 

 you see in Spring, Daisies will grow over you or someone dear to 

 you ere the year be out; and in some English counties an old 

 saying is current that Spring has not arrived until you can plant 



your foot upon twelve Daisies. Alphonse Karr, speaking of the 



Paquerette, or Easter Daisy, says, "There is a plant that no 

 insect, no animal attacks — that ornament of the field, with golden 

 disc and rays of silver, spread in such profusion at our feet : 

 nothing is so humble, nothing is so much respected." (See Mar- 

 guerite). Daisy-roots worn about the person were formerly 



deemed to prove efficacious in the cure of certain maladies ; 

 and Bacon, in his Sylva Sylvanim, tells us " There is also a received 

 tale, that boiling of Daisy-roots in milk (which it is certain are 



great driers) will make dogs little." An old writer (1696) says 



that they who wish to have pleasant dreams of the loved and 

 absent should put Daisy-roots under their pillow. It is con- 

 sidered lucky to dream of Daisies in Spring or Summer, but bad in 

 the Autumn or Winter. Daisies are herbs of Venus, under Cancer. 



DAMES' VIOLET.— The species of Rocket called Hesperis 

 matronalis, the Night-smelling Rocket, is much cultivated for the 

 evening fragrance of its flowers: hence the ladies of Germany keep 

 it in pots in their apartments, from which circumstance the flower is 

 said to have obtained the name of Dames' Violet. It is also called 

 Damask Violet, a name derived from the Latin Viola Damascena, the 

 Damascus Violet. In French this is Violette de Damas, which has 

 probably been misunderstood as Violette des Dames, and has hence 

 become, in English, Dames' Violet. (See Rocket.) 



