"If to a rock from rains he fly,
Or some bright day of April sky,
Imprisoned by hot sunshine lie
Near the green holly,

And wearily at length should fare;
He need but look about, and there
Thou art!-a friend at hand, to scare
His melancholy.

"A hundred times, by rock or bower,
Ere thus I have lain couched an hour,
Have I derived from thy sweet power
Some apprehension;

Some steady love; some brief delight;
Some memory that had taken flight;
Some chime of fancy, wrong or right;
Or stray invention.

"If stately passions in me burn,

And one chance look to thee should turn,

I drink out of an humbler urn

A lowlier pleasure;

The homely sympathy that heeds

The common life, our nature breeds;

A wisdom fitted to the needs

Of hearts at leisure.

"When, smitten by the morning ray,
I see thee rise alert and gay,
Then, cheerful flower! my spirits play
With kindred gladness:

And when, at dusk, by dews opprest
Thou sink'st, the image of thy rest
Hath often eased my pensive breast
Of careful sadness.

"And all day long I number yet,

All seasons through, another debt,
Which I, wherever thou art met,
To thee am owing;

An instinct call it, a blind sense;
A happy genial influence,

Coming one knows not how nor whence,
Nor whither going.

"Child of the Year! that round dost run
Thy course, bold lover of the sun,
And cheerful when the day 's begun
As morning leveret,

Thy* long-lost praise thou shalt regain;
Dear shalt thou be to future men

As in old time;-thou, not in vain,

Art Nature's favourite."

Nor in vain is it a favourite with the poet, who emulates Chaucer himself in doing it honour. At one time he describes it as

But again we must remember this is not to be a reprint of Mr. Wordsworth's poems.

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.

* See in Chaucer and the elder poets, the honours formerly paid to this flower.

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 parted every autumn: they should be taken up 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.

CAPRIFOLIEE.

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, Spurgeflax, 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 fair-one]; camelea, and calmolea.

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 name Mezereon is said to have been borrowed from the Dutch.

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

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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.

The Trailing Daphne grows naturally in many parts of Europe it is remarkably sweet-scented, and has purple or white flowers, which appear very early in spring. It may be treated like the Mezereon, but that it will not bear transplanting.

The Spurge-laurel, Daphne laureola-in French, laureole mâle; laureole des Anglois : in Italian, laureola maschio— has flowers of a yellowish green, which, if the season be not very severe, come out soon after Christmas. It is a native of Britain, and many other parts of Europe. This shrub, like the Mezereon, is very useful as a medicine; but, like that also, should be trusted to the skill of experienced persons only. It is a hardy plant, and may be treated like the Mezereon. The plants may be removed from the woods, or elsewhere, in the autumn; and at that season may be increased by cuttings.

The Alpine may be treated like the Trailing Daphne. The Flax-leaved Daphne has flowers like the Mezereon, only smaller they blow in June, and are very sweet