WHITE 



lover while they make sore the heart of the farmer, for the " white- 

 weed," as he calls it, is hurtful to pasture land and difficult to 

 eradicate. 



The true daisy is the Bellis perennis of England, the 



Wee, modest crimson-tippit flower 



of Burns. This was first called " day's eye," because it closed at 

 night and opened at dawn, 



That well by reason men it call may, 

 The Daisie, or else the eye of the day, 



sang Chaucer nearly four hundred years ago. In England our 

 flower is called "ox-eye" and "moon daisy;" in Scotland, 

 " dog-daisy." 



The plant is not native to this country, but was brought from 

 the Old World by the early colonists. 



DAISY FLEABANE. SWEET SCABIOUS. 



Erigeron annuus. Composite Family (p. 13). 



Stem. Stout, from three to five feet high, branched, hairy. Leaves. 

 Coarsely and sharply toothed, the lowest ovate, the upper narrower. P lower- 

 heads. Small, clustered, composed of both ray and disk-flowers, the former 

 white, purplish, or pinkish, the latter yellow. 



During the summer months the fields and waysides are whi- 

 tened with these very common flowers which look somewhat like 

 small white daisies or asters. 



Another common species is E. strigosus, a smaller plant, with 

 smaller flower-heads also, but with the white ray-flowers longer. 

 The generic name is from two Greek words signifying spring 

 and an old man, in allusion to the hoariness of certain species 

 which flower in the spring. The fleabanes were so named from 

 the belief that when burned they were objectionable to insects. 

 They were formerly hung in country cottages for the purpose of 

 excluding such unpleasant intruders. 



70 



