Wild Flowers as They Grow 



tells us that he had for them " so great affection " 



that the May Day dawn always saw him walking 



in the meadows to watch the Daisies opening in the 



sunshine, and further that " that blissful sight 



softeneth all my sorrow." He draws for us a 



charming picture which Dryden put into modern 



guise : 



" A tuft of daisies on a flowery lea 

 They saw, and thitherward they bent their way ; 

 To this both knights and dames their homage made 

 And due obeisance to the Daisy paid. 

 And then the band of flutes began to play, 

 To which a lady sang a virelay : 

 And still at every close she would repeat 

 The burthen of the song : ' The Daisy is so sweet.' ' 



It is Chaucer, too, who tells us the pretty legend 

 of the good Queen Alceste, who gave up her life 

 that her husband might have immortality. But 

 Hercules rescued her and brought her back to earth 

 in the form of a Daisy, and the number of its white 

 rays is the number of her many virtues. Another 

 legend, keeping still to the idea that the Daisy 

 must have a heroic personality behind it, recounts 



