176 A GLANCE AT BRITISH WILD FLOWERS. 



ox-eye daisy so common in this country, and more or 

 less abundant in Britain too. The Scotch call this 

 latter " dog daisy." I thought it even coarser and 

 taller there than with us. Though the commonest 

 of weeds, the "wee, modest, crimson - tippit flower" 

 sticks close at home ; it seems to have none of the 

 wandering, devil-may-care, vagabond propensities of 

 so many other weeds. I believe it has never yet ap- 

 peared upon our shores in a wild state, though Words- 

 worth addressed it thus : 



" Thou wander'st this wild world about 

 Unchecked by pride or scrupulous doubt." 



The daisy is prettier in the bud than in the flower, 

 as it then shows more crimson. It shuts up on the 

 approach of foul weather ; hence Tennyson says the 

 daisy closes 



" Her crimson fringes to the shower." 



At Alloway, whither I flitted from Glasgow, I first 

 put my hand into the British nettle, and, I may add, 

 took it out again as quickly as if I had put it into 

 the fire. I little suspected that rank, dark -green 

 weed there amid the grass under the old apple-trees, 

 where the blue speedwell and cockscombs grew, to 

 be a nettle. But I soon learned that the one plant 

 you can count on everywhere in England and Scot- 

 land is the nettle. It is the royal weed of Britain. 

 It stands guard along every road-bank and hedgerow 

 in the island. 



Put your hand to the ground after dark in any 



