128 THE POETRY OF FLOWERS 
INGRATITUDE. 
BUTTERCUPS. 
This plant contains many virulent qualities, which are said 
to affect cattle, especially sheep, and particularly the root, which 
has the property of inflaming and blistering the skin. 
Clare, the Northamptonshire poet, alludes to its ungrateful 
qualities in some lines on the “ Eternity of Nature.” Detailing 
his morning’s walk, he says : — 
I wander out and rhyme; 
What hour the dewy morning’s infancy 
Hangs on each blade of grass and every tree, 
And sprents the red thighs of the humble bee, 
Who ’gins betimes uuwearied minstrelsey; 
Who breakfasts, dines, and most divinely sups, 
With every flower save golden buttercups — 
On whose proud bosoms he will never go, 
But passes by with scarcely “ How do ye do ?” 
Since, in their showy, shining, gaudy cells, 
Haply the summer’s honey never dwells. 
INNOCENCE. 
DAISY. 
The English name of daisy is derived from a Saxon word, 
meaning day’s eye, in which way Ben Jonson writes it; and 
Chaucer calls it the “eie of the daie.” We presume that it is 
called day’s eye, from the nature of its blossom, which opens 
at daybreak, and closes at sunset: 
The little daizie, that at evening closes. 
Spenser. 
