176 COMPOSITE. 



" In shoals and bands, a morrice train, 

 Thou greet'st the traveller in the lane ; 

 If welcomed once thou count'st it gain: 



Thou art not daunted, 

 Nor car'st if thou be set at nought ; 

 And oft alone in nooks remote 

 We meet thee, like a pleasant thought, 

 When such are wanted. 



' Be Violets, in their secret mews, 

 The flowers the wanton zephyrs choose ; 

 Proud be the Rose, with rains and dews 



Her head unpearling ; 

 Thou liv'st with less ambitious aim, 

 Yet hast not gone without thy fame ; 

 Thou art indeed, by many a claim, 



The poet's darling." 



Such is the glowing love of that true poet of Nature for this 

 cheerful flower. Burns did not value it less, as his lament, 

 when he was obliged to plough it up, witnesses : 



" Wee, modest crimson-tipped flower, 

 Thou'st met me in an evil hour ; 

 For I maun crush amang the stoure 



Thy slender stem ; 

 To spare thee now is past my power, 

 Thou bonnie gem. 



" Cauld blew the bitter biting north 

 Upon thy early, humble birth; 

 Yet cheerfully thou glinted forth 



Amid the storm ; 

 Scarce reared above the parent earth 



Thy tender form. 



" The flaunting flowers our gardens yield, 

 High sheltering woods and wa's maun shield ; 

 But thou, beneath the random bield 



0* clod or stone, 

 Adorns the histie stibble-neld 

 Unseen, alone. 



" There in thy scanty mantle clad, 

 Thy snawie bosom sunward spread 

 Thou lift'st thy unassuming head 



In humble guise ; 

 But now the share uprears thy bed, 



And low thou lies 1 " 



{'The Ox-eye Daisy (Chrysanthemum leucantheinum), is nearly 



