THE DAISY. 
flowers become almost, if not quite, obsolete, and tbeir place is 
taken by bgulate flowers, which assume a deep pink colour. 
In the variety known by the name of “hen and chickens,” little 
flower-buds are formed in the axils of the bracts ; sometimes as 
many as ten or twelve of these minute daisies surround the 
parent flower, thus suggesting its familiar name. 
We can scarcely take leave of the little flower which has 
afforded us so much interest in the examination of its parts, 
without recurring to its poetical associations. The French 
name Marguerite has reference to the resemblance of its pearly 
bud to the rarer pearls of the ocean. Its Scotch name is 
(joiran, and in Yorkshire it is recognized as peculiarly the flower 
of childhood, and is called bairn wort. In looking through old 
Gerarde’s writings we find the daisy mentioned under the name 
of “bruise wort,” as an unfailing remedy in “all kinds of 
pames and aches,” besides curing fevers, inflammations of the 
liver, and “alle the inwarde parts.” 
We are not inclined to think with some writers that the 
botanical study and minute examination of this favourite flower 
in any manner detracts from its pleasant or poetical associa- 
tions and simple beauty. The interest with which we have 
regarded each little starry flower, has increased tenfold since 
there has been revealed to us in that little circle multitudes 
of perfect flowers, each with its own organization, and in every 
leaf and stalk and tiny seed we have seen arranged and disposed 
tissues as wonderfully contrived and mechanisms as beautifully 
adapted to every condition of its life, as though it were the 
oldest cedar-tree or the largest oak of the forest. 
