TRE MICHAELMAS DAISY 
229 
that one of the laws of Denmark enforces its eradication 
by the farmers on whose land it appears. It was in for- 
mer times called Maudelyne-worte. 
A large number of our wild plants belong to this order ; 
and according to Dr. Richard, more than a twelfth-part 
of known vegetables are included in it. The tansy, which 
is a common plant in gardens, and often found by road- 
sides, was formerly made into puddings, or otherwise 
eaten, at Easter; its bitter flavour being symbolical of the 
bitter herbs which the Jews were commanded to eat at the 
Passover. The word tansy is a corruption of the old 
French name of “St. Athanasie.” If meat be rubbed 
with this flower, no fly will touch it. 
The large tribe of hawkweeds — those yellow)^ flowers 
which grow" in almost every meadow, or under hedges, 
in shape something resembling the dandelion, but with 
slighter stems, and much taller than that flower — received 
their name because it was fancied that the hawk derived 
his strength of vision from their juices. The golden-rod, 
a tall, yellow flower ; the coltsfoot, a lower blossom, which 
visits us in early spring, flowering long before its leaves 
appear; the camomile, the wormwood, the bright blue 
succory, the groundsel, the wild lettuce, and a great 
number of others, are known to many. The dandelion 
is thus called from “ dent de lion its notched leaf being 
supposed to be shaped like a lion’s tooth. It has gained 
nothing, however, by the exchange of this for its old 
name; for it once bore the prettier one of condrilla. It 
is much used in medicine ; and its leaves are eaten as salad 
on the Continent. 
Many compound flowers ornament our garden both dur- 
ing summer and autumn ; from the stately sunflower, which 
grows to an immense size in woods and plains in Mexico, 
and excited the astonishmxCnt of the Spanish conquerors, 
to the marigold, which received its name, calendula, of 
the Romans, from the word “ calends, ’ ’ because it is to 
be found in flower in all the calends, or months of the 
year. The many-coloured dahlias are natives of the sandy 
fields of Mexico ; the African marigolds have come to us 
from Japan and India; and the beautiful China-asters 
(Chrysanthemum sinense) are objects of general culture in 
the Chinese gardens, and far exceed in beauty those w"hich 
