VI.] THE AMERICAN GARDENER. 213 



delicate sweet smell, and also sweet taste, as a prool 

 of which, cart-loads of the flowers, plucked from 

 the stalks, are sold in London to make " wine" 

 with ; that is to say, to furnish drinkers with an 

 apology for swallowing spirits under the specious 

 name of Cowslip-wine. The leaf of the ilowei 

 very much resembles in shape the under lip of a 

 cow, whence, I suppose, our forefathers gave the 

 plant the name of cowslip. 



347. CROCUS. A bulbous rooted plant, very 

 well known. It is recommended by its earliness. 

 It is perfectly hardy. The only thing to do when 

 it is once planted, is to take care that it does not fill 

 all the ground near it. There are yellow, blue, and 

 white Crocuses. And they are pleasant when nothing 

 else is in bloom, except, at least, the Snowdrop, 

 which departs soon after the Crocus begins to appear. 



348. DAISY. I cannot say, with Dryden's dam- 

 sels, in one of his fine poems, that "the Daisy swells 

 so sweet ;" for it has very little smell ; but it is a 

 most beautiful little flower, and blows without ceas- 

 ing at all times when the grass grows, how r ever little 

 that may be. The opening of the Daisy is the sure 

 sign that there is growth going on in the grass ; and 

 these little flowers bespangle the lawns and the 

 meadow's, the green banks and the glades all over 

 England. Their colours present an endless variety ; 

 and those grown in gardens are double. The field- 

 Daisy is single, and about the size of a York-Six- 

 pence. Those in the gardens are sometimes as 

 broad as a quarter of a dollar. And there is one 

 other sort called the Hen-and-chicken Daisy, that 

 has a ring of little flowers surrounding the mair 

 flower. This plant may be raised from offsets or 

 seed, in which last case it blows the second year 

 It is perennial. 



