VIII 



A GLANCE AT BRITISH "WILD FLOWERS 



npHE first flower I plucked in Britain was tke 

 -'- daisy, in one of the parks in Glasgow. The 

 sward had recently been mown, but the daisies 

 dotted it as thickly as stars. It is a flower almost 

 as common as the grass ; find a square foot of green- 

 sward anywhere, and you are pretty sure to find a 

 daisy, probably several of them. Bairnwort — 

 child's flower — it is called in some parts, and its 

 expression is truly infantile. It is the favorite of 

 all the poets, and when one comes to see it he does 

 not think it has been a bit overpraised. Some 

 flowers please us by their intrinsic beauty of color 

 and form; others by their expression of certain 

 human qualities : the daisy has a modest, lowly, un- 

 obtrusive look that is very taking. A little white 

 ring, its margin unevenly touched with crimson, it 

 looks up at one like the eye of a child. 



" Thou unassuming Commonplace 

 Of Nature, with that homely face, 

 And yet with something of a grace. 

 Which Love makes for thee! " 



Not a little of its charm to an American is the 

 'unexpected contrast it presents with the rank, coarse 



