"THE SWEET O' THE YEAR" 121 



and Dryden pays a tribute to which even Chaucer 

 would approve : 



And then a band of flutes began to play, 



To which a lady sang a tirelay; 



And still at every close she would repeat 



The burden of the song "The Daisy is so sweet ! 



The Daisy is so sweet!" when she began 



The troops of Knights and dames continued on. 



The English daisy is "The wee, modest crimson- 

 tipped flower," as Burns has described it, and must 

 not be confused with the daisy that powders the 

 fields and meadows in our Southern States with a 

 snow of white blossoms supported on tall stems. 

 This daisy, called sometimes the moon-daisy (Chrys- 

 anthemum Leucanthemum), is known in England 

 as the midsummer daisy and ox-eye. In France it is 

 called marguerite and paquerette. Being a mid- 

 summer flower, it is dedicated to St. John the Bap- 

 tist. It is also associated with St. Margaret and 

 Mary Magdalen, and from the latter it derives the 

 names of maudlin and maudelyne. As Ophelia 

 drowned herself in midsummer the daisies that are 

 described in her wreath are most probably mar- 

 guerites and not the "day's eye" of Chaucer. 



Parkinson does not separate daisies very particu- 

 larly. "They are usually called in Latin," he tells 



