THE OX-EYE DAISY. 



Chrysanthemum Leucanthemum. Nat. Ord., 

 Composites. 



N writing- these few accompanying- 

 words to each plate, we are almost 

 invariably met on the very thres- 

 hold of our subject with a grave 

 difficulty the difficulty arising 

 from our desire to make our re- 

 marks not altogether a repetition 

 of what has been said by scores 

 ^ of writers in scores of books 

 \ already. When we gaze on a field 

 white with the blossoms of the ox-eye, 

 or yellow with countless thousands of 

 buttercups, its perennial loveliness of 

 colour is ever welcome. The fact that 

 we have seen it all before for, perhaps, 

 twenty summers in succession, gives but 

 the added charm of all the associations 

 of the past to the recurring bounty of Nature. 



" Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale 

 Her infinite variety." 



When, however, we pluck one of these blossoms, we cannot 

 but feel that little remains to be said. The very common- 

 ness of the flower appears to render our comments super- 

 fluous. We have, nevertheless, often been surprised to 



