196 



THE YOUNG NATURALIST. 



and N. America, but it does not cross 

 the Equator, and its cheerful sunny 

 face is sadly missed by our colonists at 

 the Antipodes, imported specimens 

 have been all but worshipped for the 

 tender associations which cluster round 

 it. The daisy is essentially a pascual 

 or pasture plant, luxuriating amongst 

 the grass of lawns, where the herbage 

 is kept short, being detested by the 

 oramental gardener whose smooth vel- 

 vety turf it rapidly destroys, and 

 various engines have been devised 

 for its destruction. It spreads quickly 

 by means of its short offsets which 

 spring off on every side and take 

 root freely. If the surrounding grass 

 is allowed to grow rank it soon chokes 

 off the daisy, which in a season 

 or two becomes extirpated. Its ap- 

 pearance and disappearance has also 

 been associated with the presence or 

 absence of sheep. Only three or four 

 different species are known, and it is 

 not very subject to variation. One of 

 the most singular forms is what is 

 known in cultivation as the "hen 

 and chicken's daisy. In its earlier 

 stages it is scarcely distinguishable 

 from the ordinary garden daisy, but 

 after the primary flower head has 

 reached maturity, within the circle of 

 the cup-like involucre is produced a 

 whorl of eight or ten slender flower 

 stalks an inch or more in length, and 

 each bearing a miniature daisy, the 

 whole effect is singularly pretty. This 



abnormal freak has been met with in 

 the wild state, but it is very rare, al- 

 though it is a permanent variety and 

 easily multiplied by root division. 



The name of daisy or day's-eye was 

 given to it by Chaucer, the first of 

 English poets, and whose favourite 

 flower it was, he never tired of singing 

 its praises : — 



" Of all the floures in the mede, [rede 

 Than love I most, these floures white and 

 Soch that men callen daises in our town ; 

 To them I have so grete affection, ^ 

 As I said erst, whan comen is the maie 

 That in my bed there daweth me no dale, 

 That I n'am up and walking in the mede, 

 To see this flour ayenst the sunne sprede : 

 When it upriseth early by the morrow. 

 That blissful sight softeneth all my sorrow." 



And so on interminably, but the phrase- 

 ology is so quaint and the spelling so 

 barbarous that further quotation from 

 the rare old poet may readily be dis- 

 pensed with, although he be the Eng- 

 lish Homer, This fine old Anglo- 

 Saxon name dceges-eage, eye-of-day — 

 Old Englsh daieseygke, is from- the 

 habit of the daisy opening and closing 

 its flower with the daylight. Another 

 popular name for the daisy is " bruise- 

 wort,'' from its reputed efficacy as a 

 salve or ointment for sprains and 

 bruises. Turner, of the earliest writers 

 on English botany, says that in North- 

 umberland the daisy is known as bmi- 

 wort or haneworty because it helpeth 

 broken bones to knit again. I believe 

 this name if it ever existed is now quite 



