160 FRESH FIELDS 



ox-eye daisy so common in this country, and more 

 or less abundant in Britain, too. The Scotch call 

 this latter "dog daisy." I thought it even coarser, 

 and taller there than with us. Though the com- 

 monest of weeds, the "wee, modest, crimson-tippit 

 flower " sticks close at home ; it seems to have 

 none of the wandering, devil-may-care, vagabond 

 propensities of so many other weeds. I believe it 

 has never yet appeared upon our shores in a wild 

 state, though Wordsworth addressed it thus : 



" Thou wander'st this wild world about 

 Unchecked by pride or scrupulous doubt." 



The daisy is prettier in the bud than in the 

 flower, as it then shows more crimson. It shuts 

 up on the approach of foul weather; hence Tenny- 

 son says the daisy closes 



"Her crimson fringes to the shower." 



At Alloway, whither I flitted from Glasgow, I 

 first put my hand into the British nettle, and, I 

 may add, took it out again as quickly as if I had 

 put it into the fire. I little suspected that rank 

 dark-green weed there amid the grass under the old 

 apple-trees, where the blue speedwell and cocks- 

 combs grew, to be a nettle. But I soon learned 

 that the one plant you can count on everywhere in 

 England and Scotland is the nettle. It is the royal 

 weed of Britain. It stands guard along every road- 

 bank and hedge-row in the island. 



Put your hand to the ground after dark in any 

 fence corner, or under any hedge, or on the border 

 of any field, and the chances are ten to one you will 



