That welcomes every changing hour,
And weathers every sky.

"The prouder beauties of the field

In gay but quick succession shine,
Race after race their honors yield,
They flourish and decline.

"But this small flower, to Nature dear,

While moon and stars their courses run, Wreathes the whole circle of the year, Companion of the sun.

"It smiles upon the lap of May,

To sultry August spreads its charms,
Lights pale October on his way,
And twines December's arms.

"The purple heath and golden broom,
On moory mountains catch the gale,
O'er lawns the lily sheds perfume,
The violet in the vale.

"But this bold flow'ret climbs the hill,
Hides in the forest, haunts the glen,
Plays on the margin of the rill,
Peeps round the fox's den,

"Within the garden's cultured round
It shares the sweet carnation's bed,
And blooms on consecrated ground
In honor of the dead.

"The lambkin crops its crimson gem,

The wild bee murmurs on its breast,
The blue fly bends its pensile stem
Light o'er the skylark's nest.

""Tis Flora's page:-in every place,
In every season fresh and fair,
It opens with perennial grace,
And blossoms everywhere.

"On waste and woodland, rock and plain,

Its humble buds unheeded rise;

The rose has but a summer reign,

The daisy never dies.”

One more passage we will add, and go no further, for we should fill a volume did we collect all the poetical passages relative to this favourite flower.

"Star of the mead! sweet daughter of the day,
Whose opening flower invites the morning ray,
From thy moist cheek and bosom's chilly fold
To kiss the tears of eve, the dew-drops cold!
Sweet daisy, flower of love! when birds are paired,
'Tis sweet to see thee with thy bosom bared,
Smiling in virgin innocence serene,

Thy pearly crown above thy vest of green.

The lark, with sparkling eye, and rustling wing,
Rejoins his widow'd mate in early spring;
And, as he prunes his plumes of russet hue,
Swears on thy maiden blossom to be true.

When May-day comes, the morning of the year,
And from young April dries the gelid tear,
When, as the verdure spreads, the bird is seen
No more, that sings amid the hawthorns green,
In lovelier tints thy swelling blossoms blow
The leaflets red beneath the leaves of snow.
The damsel now, with love-awakened mind,
First hopes to leave her infancy behind,
Glides o'er the untrodden mead at dawning hour,
To seek the matin-dew of mystic power,
Bends o'er the mirror-stream with blushful air,
And weaves thy modest flower amid her hair.

Oft have I watched thy closing buds at eve,
Which for the parting sunbeams seemed to grieve,
And, when gay morning gilt the dew-bright plain,
Seen them unclasp their folded leaves again:
Nor he who sung- The daisy is so sweet,'
More dearly loved thy pearly form to greet;

When on his scarf the knight the daisy bound,
And dames at tourneys shone with daisies crowned,
And fays forsook the purer fields above

To hail the daisy, flower of faithful love."

DR. J. LEYDEN.

Of the Garden Daisy there are many varieties: the

Double White; Red; Red and White Striped; the Variegated; the Proliferous, or Hen and Chicken, &c. These, indeed, are but double varieties of the Field Daisy, but less prolific, and flowering only for a few months-April, May, and June.

The Annual resembles the Common Daisy, but is not so large it is a native of Sicily, Spain, Montpelier, Verona, and Nice.

The Garden Daisy should be planted in a loamy, unmanured earth, and placed in the shade; as the full noonday sun will sometimes kill it. The roots should be taken

up every year, in September or October, parted into single plants, and put in pots about five inches wide. When in pots, they will require a little water every evening in dry weather.

Rousseau, in his Letters on Botany, gives a long and beautiful description of the structure of the Daisy.

CAPRIFOLIÆ.

DANEWORT.

SAMBUCUS EBULUS.

PENTANDRIA TRIGYNIA.

Dwarf Elder, Wallwort, and Walewort.-French, yeble; hièble: petite sureau: in Provence, saupuden.—Italian, ebbio; ebulo.

DANEWORT is a shrub which grows three or four feet high, and bears a profusion of blossoms, of a dull red colour. It is a native of England, and many other parts of Europe; and was named Danewort among us from a notion that it had first sprung from the blood of the Danes. It blows in July, is very hardy, and likes a moist soil. Its leaves, like those of the common elder, are strewed to keep away moles and mice, which will not come near

them. The elder tree is supposed to be prejudicial to persons reclining under its shade.

THYMELEE.

DAPHNE.

OCTANDRIA MONOGYNIA.

This genus is named from the nymph beloved of Apollo: some of the species greatly resembling the bay.

Or this genus, the most beautiful kind, and the kind most frequent in our gardens, is the Daphne Mezereon: also called Spurge-olive, German Olive-spurge, Spurge-flax, Flowering-spurge, and Dwarf Bay. Most of the European languages give it a name equivalent to Female Bay. The French call it laureole femelle; laureole gentille; bois joli ; bois gentille; mal-herbe: in the villages, dzentelliet.-The Italians, Daphnoide; laureola femina; biondella [little fairone]; camelea, and calmolea. The name Mezereon is said to have been borrowed from the Dutch.

The Daphne Mezereon is a handsome shrub: the flowers come out before the leaves, early in the spring; they grow in clusters all round the shoots of the former year. Thus it is as Cowper says:

Though leafless well attired, and thick beset

With blushing wreaths, investing every spray."

It is a native of almost every part of Europe: with us, it is very common in the beech woods in Buckinghamshire.

The branches of the Daphne Mezereon make a good yellow dye. The berries are a powerful poison, but the bark is a very useful and valuable medicine. The two principal varieties of this species of the Daphne are the White-flowered, which has yellow berries, and the Peachcoloured, of which the berries are red.

The Mezereon is very sweet-scented; and, where there are many together, they will perfume the air to a considerable distance. The best time for transplanting this shrub is the autumn; because, as it begins to vegetate early in the spring, it should not be then disturbed. It thrives best in a dry soil; if it has too much wet, it becomes mossy, and stinted in its growth, and produces fewer flowers. It should enjoy the morning sun, and remain abroad all the year.

Of the other species of Daphne, the Silvery-leaved, a native of the south of France, is one of the prettiest. This will not bear transplanting, and must be sheltered in severe frost. It should be sparingly watered. The leaves of this shrub are white, small, soft, and shining like satin : between these leaves come out thick clusters of white flowers, bell-shaped, and tinged with yellow on the inside.

In France this plant is called Tartonraire. Tournefort, in his Travels in the Levant, tells us that the ladies of Cora, seeing him examine the plants by the wayside very attentively, gave him a sprig of this, and asked him if he knew the uses of it: he told them that, in France, it was used medicinally; but they pointed to their heads, and gave him to understand that they used it as a dye, to colour their veils yellow; and pointing out to him some persons who were sweeping the terrace, and who showed him their brooms, informed him that they called it "herbe aux balais," broomplant. For dyeing, they take the tops of the branches, which they throw into boiling water; and boiling them for a few minutes, they then add a little powdered alum: the article to be dyed is then put in, and left to soak all night : and this yellow colour is as fine as any skill could make it ; says Tournefort *.

* Tournefort, vol. ii, p. 134.