The Daisy. 253 



The Daisy, 



Who does not love the simple flower, 



With silver crest and golden eye, 

 That welcomes every changing hour, 



And weathers every sky 1 



'Tis Flora's page: in every place, 



in every season fresh and fair, 

 It opens with perennial grace, 



And blossoms everywhere. 



On waste and woodland, rock and plain, 



Its humble buds unheeded rise, 

 The rose has but a summer reign, 



The Daisy never dies. 



This plant is in the class Syngenesia, order Polygamia Super- 

 ilua. The generic name, Belles, is from an ancient Latin word, 

 bellus, handsome, from which comes also the French word, bel 

 The specific name, Perennis, signifies the fact of its continued 

 existence for years. The generic characters are : calyx hemi- 

 spherical ; scales equal ; egret none ; receptacle cone-shaped ; 

 seed obovate. It is a pretty evergreen perennial, flowering in 

 pastures from early spring to the end of autumn. It sends up 

 single flower-stalks from the root, which bear but one flower 

 each, and is naked, entirely free from hairs or down. The leaves 

 are large, obtuse at the end, gradually tapering into a stalk at the 

 base, and scalloped with notches on the margin, which point 

 neither to the base or apex. The English name of Daisy 

 is derived from a Saxon word, meaning day's eye, in which 

 way Ben Jonson writes it ; and Chaucer calls it the " eie of the 

 daie." Tyas presumes it is called day's eye, from the nature of 

 its blossom, which opens at daybreak and closes at sunset. The 

 leaves and flowers are rather acrid, and, though formerly much 

 used, have gone entirely out of regular practice. 



" Malvina leaning over Fingal's tomb, mourns for the valiant 

 Oscar and his son, who died before he had seen the light. 



" The virgins of Morven, to calm her grief, walk often around 

 her, celebrating, by their songs, the death of the brave and the 

 new-born. 



