DAISY 



DAISY. OX-EYE DAISY. WHITE WEED 



Chrysdnthemum leucdnthemum 



Chrysanthemum, Greek, golden-flower. 



Perennial and winter annual. Naturalized from Eu- 

 rope. The Daisy flowers whiten the fields, meadows, and 

 roadsides in late June and early July. Regarded as a 

 pernicious weed. June-October. 



Root. — Tap, fringed with many rootlets. 



Stem. — Erect, often tufted, one to three feet high, 

 sparingly leaved. 



Leaves. — Stem leaves partly clasping, lance-shaped 

 or spatulate, obovate, variously cut and notched; 

 uppermost — small, almost entire. Basal leaves oblong, 

 obovate or spatulate, coarsely cut and toothed, nar- 

 rowed into long slender petioles. The seedlings form 

 rosettes upon the ground. 



Flower-heads. — Radiate-composite, solitary, at the top 

 of the stem, an inch and a half to two inches across. 

 The centre is a flattened hemisphere, slightly hollowed, 

 yellow, composed of many densely packed, brilliant yellow 

 tubular florets, forming the disk of the head. Around 

 this are twenty to thirty beautiful, long, rather broad, 

 white, spreading ray-florets. They are veined and 

 slightly grooved and finely toothed at the tip. They are 

 pistillate, and mature seed. Receptacle is flat. Involucre 

 is composed of many oblong, obtuse, overlapping bracts, 

 with dry margins, and a brown line just within the margins. 

 No pappus. It sometimes happens that the ray-florets 

 are changed into large, tubular florets. 



"Over the shoulders and slopes of the dune 



I saw the white daisies go down to the sea — 

 A host in the sunshine, a snow drift in June, 

 The people God sends us to set our hearts free." 



— Bliss Carman. 



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