The Daisy 



that one of the Behdes — the nymphs who presided 

 over the meadows — was dancing with her lover, a 

 rural god, when she fired the love of Vertumnus, 

 the god of the changing seasons, and he pursued her. 

 To escape him she became changed into the Daisy, 

 hence the name Bellis. But many of these legends 

 are really allegories, and this surely is one, for the 

 Daisy in its apparently fadeless beauty making 

 festive the country from May to Christmas seems 

 beyond the reach of injury from the passing 

 seasons. 



Yet a third origin is found for this flower in the 

 Ossian poems. As Malvinia was mourning the 

 death of her infant, the mowers in the fields com- 

 forted her by saying they had seen the child borne 

 on light mist strewing the flowers over the meadows 

 " among which rises one with golden disk encircled 

 with rays of silver, tipped with delicate tints of 

 crimson. Dry thy tears, O Malvinia, the flower of 

 thy bosom hath given a new flower to the hills of 

 Cromla." 



II 



