CHAP. xx. THE DAISY. 339 



grass Hierochloe borealis. By this time Dick had 

 received communications from botanists in nearly every 

 part of the country, asking for dried specimens of the 

 grass. He also went to the cliffs on Dunnet Head, to his 

 ferneries on Ben Dorery and the Eeay hills, to see how 

 the ferns were growing that he had planted ferns that 

 would still be growing when he and his friend Peach 

 " were both out of time." 



" I have discovered," he says one day, " another plant 

 wonder ! Some time ago I found a new daisy. I have 

 now found another. It has twenty-four little heads, 

 and the stalks are longer than the other. I sought all 

 over the grass field on which it grew, and could not find 

 another. I never read of such a daisy being found wild. 

 A daisy with thirteen heads, and another with twenty- 

 four heads, are most extraordinary. But ' little things 

 are great to little minds/" 



To his brother-in-law he said : " So you have been 

 amongst gardeners, and found a daisy. Still, the wild 

 one is, I think much finer. It is tall, and being single, 

 it makes a more natural show. I have hastily pencilled 

 it off [giving a drawing of the wild daisy]. I could have 

 done it much better, only it is Saturday afternoon, and 

 I am busy. 



" The daisy is a great favourite with the poets ; Burns 

 speaks of it as the ' wee, modest, crimson-tipped flower.' 

 Another says of it, ' the bright flower, whose home is 

 everywhere.' Another 



" ' The rose has but a summer reign, 

 The daisy never dies.' 



