42 ENGLISH BOTANY. 
In pastures, meadows, roadsides, and waste places, &c. Very 
common, and universally distributed. 
England, Scotland, Ireland. Perennial. Summer 
and Autumn. 
Hootstock slender, woody, branched. Stems erect, 1 to 2 feet 
high, sparingly hairy with jointed hairs. Leaves very variable in 
the degree of incision, those of the barren tufts generally crenato 
or doubly crenate, those towards the base of the stem attenuated, 
crenate/inciso-serrate or sometimes pinnatifid ; upper ones gene- 
rally inciso-serrate and semi-am plexicaul at the base. Anthodes, 
including the ray, 1\ to 2 inches across ; disk rather convex. 
Florets of the disk yellow with the tube dilated and winged at the 
base, those of the ray with the ligule broad, rounded, or very faintly 
toothed at the tip. Achenes dark-grey, with very prominent white 
ribs. Plant deep-green, sub-glabrous, with minute scattered jointed 
hairs on the leaves, especially on the veins. All the specimens I 
have examined have a crown at the apex of the achenes of the ray- 
florets, but most authors describe them as destitute of one. 
Great White Ox-eye, 
French, Chrysantlibne grande Marguerite. German, Grosse Kciseblume. 
The trivial name of this species of Chrysanthemum is as significant as its generic 
name — it is, in reality, white flower, the two names together being expressive of the 
two colours united in it. The old Northern name for this daisy. was Baldur's brow ; 
and this, with many other species of Chrysanthemum became also dedicated to St. John. 
We find a writer in the Quarterly Review writing thus : " The attributes of the Baptist 
are sometimes shared in a remarkable manner by St. John the Evangelist ; and the 
golden ' sunflowers,' as these Chrysanthemums were formerly called, are occasionally 
introduced in representations of the latter saint with singular beauty and fitness. 
Thus, in stained glass of the 12th century filling a window in the apse of St. Bemi at 
K helms, the Virgin and St. John appear on either side of the cross, the heads of both 
encircled by aureoles having sunflowers in their outer circles. The flowers are turned 
towards the Saviour on the cross as toward their true sun." The sunilowers of the 
garden are different flowers altogether, and are an importation from Peru. 
The Chrysanthemum of the garden, that glorious ornament of the later months of 
the year, is a native of Japan, but belongs to the same genus as our humble Ox-eye, 
The fust, specimen of this foreign kind was cultivated here at Kew, and was of a 
purple colour. From this variety all the sorts now so fashionable have been derived. 
The little "pompone" Chrysanthemum was brought from Chusan by Mr. Fortune, and 
for a longtime was known as the "Chusan daisy." 
The young leaves of our native Ox-eye may be eaten as a salad. Gerarde tells 
us that " Dioscorides saith, that the floures of Oxeie made up in a scare cloth doe 
asswage and waste away cold hard swellings ; and it is reported that if they be 
drunke by and by after bathing, they make them in a short time well coloured that 
have beene troubled with the yellow jaundice." 
