

NATURE STUDIES. 43 



A WINTER WEED. 



BY GRANT ALLEX. 



A DAY or two of warm weather, wafted to us by the 

 westerly breezes, has brought out the daisies on the 

 lawn as vigorously as if it were May, instead of 

 January. The sward is dappled all over with their 

 little timid white blossoms in a way that quite defies 

 the decencies of the season. The fact is, modest and 

 shrinking as they seem to be, daisies are very hardy 

 and hard-working small plants, which never miss an 

 opportunity of pushing their way in the world ; and 

 no doubt they have their reward, for probably no 

 other flowering kind except, perhaps, one or two 

 grasses have been half so successful in colonising the 

 fields and hill-sides as these unobtrusive, wee things 

 have been. In the spring, they are the very earliest 

 plants to bloom ; and since the early flower catches 

 the bee, they begin setting their seed before the 

 other blossoms are well awake ; all through the 

 summer and autumn they go on blooming unin- 

 terruptedly; and even when winter comes, they are 

 ready at a moment's notice to take advantage of any 

 brief gleam of sunlight which may happen to occur, 

 putting forth their pretty buds fearlessly, and alluring 

 the last stray insects of the season to visit their tiny 

 golden bells. 



Here in my hand I have grubbed up one entire 



