258 COMPOSITE. [Bellis. 



" Star of ihe mead ! sweet daughter of the day, 

 Whose opening flower invites the morning ray, 

 From thy moist cheek and hosom's chilly fold, 

 To kiss the tears of eve, the dew drops cold ! 

 Sweet Daisy, flower of Love ! when birds are pair'd, 

 'Tis sweet to see thee with thy bosom bared, 

 Smiling in virgin innocence serene, 

 Thy pearly crown about thy vest of green. 

 The lark, with sparkling eye and rustling wing, 

 Rejoins his widow'd mate in early spring. 

 And, as he prunes his plumes of russet hue. 

 Swears on thy maiden blossom to be true." 



Leyden, Scenes of Infancy, Part II. 



" Daisies, ye flowers of lowly birth. 

 Embroiderers of the carpet earth, 



That stud the velvet sod ; 

 Open to spring's refreshing air. 

 In sweetest smiling bloom declare 

 Your Maker, and my God.'' 



Clare, Song of Praise. 



****** Trampled under foot 



The Daisy lives, and strikes its little root 



Into the lap of time : centuries may come 



And pass away into the silent tomb. 



And still the child, hid in the womb of time. 



Shall smile and pluck them, when this simple rhyme 



Shall be forgotten, like a churchyard stone. 



Or lingering lie unnoticed and alone. 



When eighteen hundred years-, our common date. 



Grow many thousands in their marching state. 



Aye, still the child with pleasure in his eye 



Shall cry — the Daisy ! a familiar cry — 



And run to pluck it, in the self-same slate. 



As when Time found it in his infant date ; 



And like a child himself when all was new 



Might smile with wonder, and take notice too. 



Its little golden bosom, filled with snow. 



Might win e'en Eve to stoop adown, and show 



Her partner Adam, in the silky grass. 



This little gem, that smiled where pleasure was, 



And loving Eve, from Eden followed ill. 



And bloomed with sorrow, and lives smiling still. 



As once in Eden under heaven's breath, 



So now on earth, and on the lap of death 



It smiles for ever." 



Clare, Rural Muse. — The Eternity of Nature. 



1. V>. perennis,'L. Common Daisy. " Perennial, scape single- 

 headed, leaves spathulate obovate, crenate 1-nerved." — Br. Fl. p. 

 241. E. B. t. 424. 



$. Proliferous. 



In meadows, pastures, on grassy banks and short turf by roadsides and borders 

 of fields, paths, &c. ; profusely everywhere. FL April — June (less copiously the 

 year round). !(.. 



(3. A wild specimen of this not uncommon garden monstrosity, known by the 

 name of Hen and Chickens Daisy, was found by Mr. G. Kirkpatrick in a field 

 by Newport, 1839. 



