1U(> ENGLISH BOTANY. 
flower of childhood, and is called bairn wvrt. The fanciful and poetical names of tins 
little flower are too numerous to mention. The "wee modest crimson-tipped flower" 
of Burns, — 
"Tis Flora's page ; in every place, 
In every season fresh and fair, 
It opens with perennial grace, 
And blossoms everywhere." 
Nowhere has the structure and general appearance of the Daisy been described so 
pleasantly as in some letters on the elements of botany, by the celebrated philosopher 
aud poet Rousseau ; but he does not appear to have thought of going further into the 
subject than would be suggested by merely external observation. We have at this day 
so many appliances at hand to assist our investigations, that if we are disposed to make 
use of them, we shall find in our little plant much that is most interesting, hitherto 
undescribed. Having determined to study the Daisy in all its parts, no subject can 
be obtained with less difficulty. Throughout Great Britain, we find its tiny bright 
flowers springing up on every " lawn and grassy plot," by waysides, on mountain-slopes ■ 
and in almost every country in Europe may we find 
" These pearled Arcturi of the earth, 
The constellated flowers that never set." 
In the extreme north of Europe, however, and in America, it is not common, and 
is there treasured as a garden flower. Though not exclusively a British plant, yet so 
closely is the Daisy associated with the earliest recollections of every native of the 
British isles, that we can scarcely wonder that it is especially dear to the wanderer from 
home in distant lands, and that it brings back recollections of rural scenes such as 
cannot be met with elsewhere. There is an old Celtic belief that each new-born babe 
taken from earth became a spirit which scattered down on the land it had left some 
new kind of flower to cheer its bereaved parents. The tale is thus told :— " The virgins 
of Morven, to soothe the grief of Malvina, who had lost her infant son, sung to her — 
1 We have seen, oh Malvina ! — we have seen the infant you regret, reclining on a light 
mist ; it approached us, and shed on our fields a harvest of new flowers. Look, oh 
Malvina ! among these flowers we distinguish one with a golden disk, surrounded by 
silver leaves j a sweet tinge of crimson adorns its delicate rays; waved by a gentle 
wind, we might call it a little infant playing in a green meadow; and the flower of 
thy bosom lias given a new flower to the hills of Cromla.' Since that day the daughters 
of Morven have consecrated the Daisy to infancy. It is called the flower of innocence, 
— the flower of the new-born." 
The roots of ( he Daisy have a plightly bitter, astringent taste, and contain, in 
common with other plants of the same group, a portion of tannic acid. This principle 
has, however, never been separated, and it is doubtful whether the old recipe of " daisy 
roots and cream" had more than a fancied efficacy. In looking through old Gerardefa 
writings, we ti ml the Daisy mentioned under the name of " bruise wort" as an unfailing 
remedy in ''all kinds of paines and aches," besides curing fevers, inflammations of the 
liver, and " alle the inwarde parts.'" 
The Daisy appears as almost interwoven with the materials forming the green 
carpel of OUT tields and pastures, so closely does it adapt itself to the circumstances iii 
which it is found. In barren and uncultivated land it becomes a very dwarf, keeping 
its haves very near the ground, and with its flower-stalk scarcely raised above the 
