158 FAMJLlAJt GAUD EN FLOWEUH. 



eolouv white, ruse, red, erimsmi, or purple. Moreover, the 

 substance of the tlower has been so mueh augmented that 

 when removed from tlie plant it will, with but little cave, 

 continue fresh and beautiful for several days, while the 

 wild daisy would, as a cut flower, be unattractive in the 

 first instance, and would jserish almost immediately after 

 removal. The flower-garden affords ojjportunity for many 

 studies of the influence of man over the forms of nature, 

 but we shall find few examples so striking as the one 

 before us, and none that surjiasses it in directness of appeal 

 to the ordinary vision. It needs no philosopher to see the 

 difference between a single and a double daisy, but the 

 conversion of the one into the other may very properly fill 

 the mind with surprise and delight. 



There are in our gardens many double daisies of re- 

 markably fine quality, and they are singularly useful when 

 planted out in open breez> places, more especially in the 

 northern counties. In a town garden they do not display 

 their characters in a- satisfactory manner ; the}' Ijecome 

 " weedy ,'•' and very often the roots are destroj^ed by 

 ground vermin. But in a country garden, more espe- 

 cially on a sandy soil, and in a situation exposed to 

 keen winds, these double daisies are, in their way, in- 

 valuable. They may be planted to form solid masses of 

 colour, and they will flower continuously from March to 

 August, the growth being exceedingly neat, the fiower.s 

 large and brilliant, and borne on short stems, so as to 

 sit, as it were, on the green bed formed for them by 

 the small leaves. Where the soil is heavy, and there 

 are walls and trees near at hand, they produce large 

 leaves, and the flowers rise on tall stems, and a month or 

 so is the utmost time of their continuance ; and, at their 



