ENGLISH DAISY 



ENGLISH DAISY 



Bellis perennis. 



Bellis, Latin, hellus, pretty. 



A dwarf perennial herb, the Daisy of English fields and of English 

 literature; it appears in our market with the early pansies; the com- 

 mercial forms usually double. April, May. 



Leaves. — Clustered, rising directly from a creeping rootstock; oval, 

 obovate with a few rounded teeth. 



Flower-heads. — Three-fourths of an inch to an inch across, solitary 

 on hairy scapes, two to three inches high. 

 Rays. — Fertile, white with crimson tips; disk -florets tubular. 

 Involucre. — Of one or two rows of green bracts. 

 Akenes. — Without pappus. 



The English Daisy grows but half-heartedly in this country, yet 

 is persistently offered by the gardeners in the spring with the 

 pansies. In western Europe it is at home, and its abundance and 

 beauty seem to have touched the emotions of all the western 

 Europear peoples. There is a caress in all its common names. 

 In Scotland it is Bairnwort, the children's plant; in England the 

 Day's Eye; in France, Marguerite, a pearl. And the English 

 poets from Chaucer to Tennyson have felt its charm and sung its 



beauty. 



Of all the floures in the mede. 

 Than love I most these floures white and rede, 

 Soch that men callen daisies in our town. ^ 



— Prologue of the "Legend of Good Women," Chatjcer. 



When daisies pied and violets blue 



And lady-smocks all silver white 

 And cuckoo buds of yellow hue 



Do paint the meadows with delight. 

 — "Love's Labor's Lost," Act V, Sc. -2, Shakespeare. 



Meadows trim with daisies pied. 



— "L' Allegro," Milton. 



Wee, modest, crimson-tipped flower. 



— "To a Daisy," Burns. 

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