In Yorkshire, this plant is called dog-daisy; and in Scotland 
gowan, a name which in that country is also applied to the dan¬ 
delion, hawkweed, &c. 
The opening gowan, wet with dew. 
We find it recorded in Milton’s Comus, that 
By dimpled brook and fountain brim, 
The wood-nymphs, decked with daisies trim, 
Their merry wakes and pastimes keep. 
“ Malvina, leaning o’er Fingal’s tomb, mourns for the valiant 
Oscar, and his son who died before he had seen the light. 
“ The virgins of Morven, to calm her grief, walk often around 
her, celebrating, by their songs, the death of the brave and the 
newborn. 
“ ‘ The hero is fallen,’ say they; ‘ he is fallen ! and the sound 
of his arms echoes over the plain; disease, which takes away 
courage—age, which dishonours heroes — can no longer touch 
him; he is fallen ! and the sound of his arms echoes over the 
plain! 
“ ‘Received into the heavenly palace inhabited by his ances¬ 
tors, he drinks with them the cup of immortality. Oh! 
daughter of Oscar, dry^hy tears of grief; the hero is fallen ! 
he is fallen! and the sound of his arms echoes over the plain !’ 
“ Then, in a softer voice, they said again to her : ‘The child 
who has not seen the light, has not known the bitterness of 
life; its young soul, borne on glittering wings, arrives with the 
diligent Aurora in the palace of day. The souls of children, 
who have, like it, broken the chaiqe of life without sorrow, 
reclining on golden clouds, present themselves, and open to it 
the mysterious portals of Flora’s cabinet. There this innocent 
