The Sedalia weekly bazoo. [volume] (Sedalia, Mo.) 187?-1904, 1889-07-09
THE ENGLISH DAISY.
A Modest Little Flower which Figures In
Poetry as Well a. Deraiiry.


Poetry as Well a. Beraidry.
/ picked my first crimson tipped
daisies in or near the little black-and-
white village of Whitnash, village
nesting in the very heart of green
England. and concerning which Haw-
thorne writes most delightfully."- in
sour Old Home"
Not far from Whitnash is a deep
railway cut, the sloping banks of which
are smooth and green a. well-kept
lawn. 1t was there | espied them, on
an April day, as / leaned over the
railing of the bridge spanning the cut.
They starred the green turf in constel-
atoms.
Ever since the arrival of the thrushes
and blackbirds | had been seeking
them, and now they had come, as wild
flowers do, not singly. but by the
myriad, as though by some electric
underground communication they had
fixed upon the exact date and hour in
which to join en- masse the train of the
advancing spring.
The entrance to this cut is carefully
guarded by high picket fence. But
with equal care stile has been built
over the fence so that whoever pleases
can gain access to 1t.
/ brought away a handful of these
daisies, and most perfect they were,
the disk having a center of rich golden
brown grading into bright yellow
where it was joined by the crimson
tipped rays.
put them in water, and, as the night
closed in, the petals shut, to open
again with the returning sun-the true
day's-eye.
Whitnash is in Shakspeare's county
which he had in mind when he wrote
his spring song beginning:
When daisies pied and violets blue
And lady smocks all silver white,
And cuckoo buds Of yellow hue
Do paint the meadows with delight
] was so happy as to find the cuckoo
bud of yellow hue" the very day after
finding the daisies.
One more quotation from the great
poet must be permitted me, which,
since / have seen the English daisy in
its home, seems TO me absolutely per-
feet.
Without the bed her other fair hand was
On the green coverlet, whose perfect white
Shone like an April daisy on the grass.
The daisy is found in heraldry. 1t
was assumed by the good Marguerite
of Valois, she who was the friend of
Calvin and the grandmother of the
French Henry w.. and also by Mar
garet of Richmond. the mother of
Henry VII, and the foundress of
Christ College, Cambridge, who bore
three daisies on green turf, to my
thinking one OF the prettiest Of
badges.
The old stone church at Whitnash
was dedicated to St. Margaret, and in
a stained-glass window Ct its south
porch she is represented bearing in
her hand spray of daisies with GRIM
son rays.
The daisy when springing from a
rich soil sometimes has curious
growth of tiny flowers underneath the
main flower and growing out of the
green bracts. This Is called the Hen
and Chickens Daisy" the big flower
answering to the hen and the small
ones 10 the chickens.
There are ordinarily only two or
three of these tiny chickens" perfect
little daisies, cozily nesting under the
rays of the larger one. But some
times there is complete ring OF them
close set. This curious growth is also
called "Jackanapes on Horseback"
though in Warwickshire the former
name obtains.
The word daisy" was formerly
used in the eastern counties of En-
gland as an adjective meaning excel
lent, remarkable-as for instance,
She's daisy lass to work." mean
ing "She's good girl TO work" or,
I'm a daisy hand for a pudding"
meaning Il eat a good deal of pud-
ding"
Here is only another curious exam
pie of the fact of what we call slang
is often only revival of an old
phrase. And the American young
ster's You're daisy!r is simply old
provincial English.-FTde A,Cake.