DAISY. , 
{Innocence.) 
“Whose white investments figure innocence.”—S hakspeare. 
T he flower which, next to the rose, appears to have 
received the most attention from the poets is the 
Daisy. 
Formerly it was termed the “Ye of daie, and under 
that name Chaucer speaks of it. 
According to the classic account, this little flower owed 
its origin to Belidcs, one of the dryads, the nymphs 
who presided over woodlands. It is fabled that whilst 
this damsel was dancing with her favored suitor, 
Ephigeus, she attracted the attention of Vertumnus, 
the guardian deity of orchards : and it was in order to 
shelter her from his pursuit that she was transfoimed 
into Bcellis, or the daisy—the “ day’s eye,” as our old 
poets call it—the flower of faithful love, which opens 
and closes with the sun. 
It is called in French la Marguerite, or pearl. 
The unhappy Margaret of Anjou chose it as her de¬ 
vice ; and when she reigned a beauty and crowned 
queen, the nobles of England wore wreaths of it, or had 
it embroidered on their robes. 
Marguerite de Valois, the friend of Erasmus and 
Calvin—the Marguerite of Marguerites—also adopted 
this flower as her device ; and it was more appiopiiate 
certainly to the princess who withdrew from the glitter 
of courts to study her Bible than to the ambitious Lan¬ 
castrian queen of Englandc 
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