A COMPOSITE FAMILY 



245 



Sun's council fire, about which the twelve months 

 sit awaiting in turn for the season to give their 

 varied offerings. From November until early April 

 the Dandelion, opening bravely in 

 thawed places and warm corners, is 

 the only resident member. In late 

 April the woolly leaves and light pur- 

 ple wheels of Robin's Plantain may 

 be seen carrying the hue 

 of the paler Violets into 

 dry ground and well up 

 hillsides where the aster- 

 like flowers keep com- 

 pany with the white 

 fluff of the early 

 Everlasting, that quite 

 suggests its local name 

 of Pussy -toes. 



In May, Chamo- 

 mile takes the field, with 

 its fine -cut leaves, a fore- 

 runner in shape, though 

 not in size, of its cousin, 

 the Ox - eye Daisy ; and before June has fairly 

 arranged her exquisitely brocaded draperies, this 

 same Daisy is seizing upon waste fields and road 



