,58 



CASSELL'S POPULAR GAEDEXIXG. 



that placed almost anywhere, they must needs give 

 pleasure and satisfaction. In not a few localities the 

 flowers in window-sill or garden plot are the one 

 touch of nature that makes town and country kin, 

 Jinking the two together in the indissoluhle bonds 

 of a common love for common flowers. 



More than that, these common flowers, struggling 

 bravely for life under the most unfavourable and 

 trying conditions, possess, as a rule, a most un- 

 common and tender interest. Those Gillj^-flowers, 

 Daisies, Primroses, Eorget-me-nots, are all slips 

 from the plants in the old garden at home, and form 

 more subtle, swift, and constant lines of communi- 

 cation than those of telegraph or telephone. The 

 common flowers suggest common interests, pur- 

 suits, tastes, loves ; and bind thousands and tens 

 of thousands together who would otherwise be far 

 more widely sundei^ed. 

 The common flowers 

 become the common 

 trysting-places of 

 kindred spirits ; and 

 we hope that this 

 series of articles may 

 prove to be among the 

 most interesting and 

 attractive portions of 

 our work. 



The Daisy.— Xot 



a few distinct species 

 of plants are kno-v^m 

 imder this name. Such, for example, as the com- 

 mon herbaceous Asters, which flower in the autumn, 

 and are known as Michaelmas Daisies ; the Pompon 

 Chi-ysanthemums, which have been called Chusan 

 Daisies; the Chrysanthemum leucantheinum, or Dog 

 Daisy; the Chy smith emum tiliginosum, or Hungarian 

 Dog Daisy; the Swan River Daisy {Brachycome 

 ■iberidifoUa) ; and the Paris Daisies, or Marguerites. 

 All these, and several other composite or astereeceous 

 plants, are popularly called Daisies at times ; and 

 nearly the whole of them, and especially the Vjre- 

 thrums, single and double, the annual Chiysanthe- 

 mums, such as coronatum, tricolorum, and carinatum 

 — the last two being probably the same species — 

 are well worthy of cultivation. But it is not of 

 either of these that we would now write, but of the 

 common Garden Daisy, BcUis percnnis hortensis, the 

 common parent of all our garden Daisies. This 

 is e%idently a sport from the common Daisy of the 

 meads, that variegates their A-erdiu^e with stars of 

 light. When or where the Double Daisy lost its 

 golden heart, or eye rather, and got mountains of 

 thread-like petals piled up over it to hide its original 

 whereabouts under a semisphere of red, white, or 



mixed colours, history says not. Certain it is that 

 the Daisy took to doubling at a very early stage. 

 The "eyes " of Daisies in the gi-een meads are often 

 lichly furnished with ruddy lashes ; and the Daisies 

 are always learning the art of doubling, as well as 

 colouring. Culture and selection also strengthen 

 and fix the tendency. 



This process of " doubling " is in fact very cmious, 

 and a comparison of the Daisy with the flower next 

 on oui' Hst will perhaps awaken in the reader, better 

 than most other compaiisons, an interest in acquir- 

 ing some knowledge of the essential natui-e of that 

 extiaordinary variety in the foi-ms of flowers, which 

 will be dealt with in due course. 



It is manifest that every flower of the Forget- 

 me-not is a single flower. To most people who have 

 no knowledge of botany, and have never made any 

 examination for them- 

 selves, the flower of a 

 field Daisy may appear 

 the same. But upon 

 pulling off one by one 

 what are supposed to 

 be the petals, it will 

 be foimd that each of 

 these is a complete 

 tiny flower, a tubular 

 corolla enclosing the 

 sexual organs, and one 

 edge or side only of 

 the tube being length- 

 ened out like a tongue 

 to form the supposed petal (Fig. 1, a b). Picking 

 these away till all are removed, the centre of the 

 Daisy is seen to be composed of similar tiny flowers, 

 except that one edge of these is not prolonged into 

 an apparent petal (Fig. 1, c). The outermost, 

 tongue-shaped flowers are called ray-florets, and 

 the central ones the disc-florets. So much for 

 the common Daisy of the fields. And now the 

 "doubling" of the Daisy, so far as regards the usual 

 and best-known garden f oi-m, simply consists in these 

 central or disc -flowers also developing one side of 

 their corolla into petal-like prolongations like those 

 of the ray. The effect of this is, of coui'se, to fill uj) 

 the centre also with apparent petals, the golden 

 "eye " being now buried among these. But, strange 

 to say, there is another method of doubling," seen 

 in another very common form of Double Daisy — 

 the " Quill Daisy." In this foi-m the above process 

 is precisely reversed ; it is now the central florets 

 which are larger and more brightly colom'ed than 

 usual, while the outer or ray-florets, instead of being 

 tongue-shaped, have become all tubular, like the 

 central ones. 



This simple example teaches us at once in what 



1> A c 



Fig. 1.— Section of Common Daisy, a, section through entire 

 flower-head of the Daisy ; b, single floret from margin, 

 showing seed-vessel, and corolla with tongue-like prolonga- 

 tion, forming apparent petal (enlarged) ; c, single floret 

 from the dis^c, showing corolla without ligulate prolonga- 

 tion (enlarged). 



