COMMON DkWl.—Bems peremiis. 



Class Syxgenesia. Order Superflua. Nat. Ord. Composit^e. 

 Compound Flowers. 



There is no flower wliicli seems so peculiarly 

 to belong to our native land as the Daisy. 

 Springing up in every meadow, in " times 

 unkind/' as well as on the summer day, the 

 delight of childhood, how often does it seem 

 to recal 



" Some brief delight, 

 Some memory that had taken flight, 

 Some chime of fancy, wrong or right. 

 Or stray invention," 



English and Scottish poets have sung its 

 praises, from Chaucer downwards, who called 

 it Day's Eye, because its flowers are shut at 

 night, and Avho says it is " of all flouris the 

 floure." It is indeed what Wordsworth de- 

 scribes it, "the poet's darling;" and not the 

 less so, that, like the wind, it comes to every 

 field. In the north it is called Bairnwort, 

 because it is loved by children. And when the 

 traveller sees its rosy-tipped flowers among 

 the grass of other lands, as at Madeira, AA*kere 

 it is natm^alized, or beholds it cherished in a 

 garden-pot in India, it brings back a thought 

 of his early days. " Many little flowers," says 

 Backhouse, when in Auslraha, *' begin to 

 enamel the ground, one of which is too much 



