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Lilium: Chaucer

DAISY, from doeges-eage, the day's-eye, or eye of the day.--This etymology is sometimes regarded as fanciful, but it is adopted by all authorities, and is justified by reference to Chaucer and the earlier Saxon vocabularies. Richardson and Skeat both favour it, the latter remarking, "from the sun-like appearance of the flower." The lines in Chaucer's Prologue to the "Legend of Good Women" exactly suit for dictionary purposes. He says:-- "Well by reason men it call may The deisie, or els the eye of the day." In synopsis, will be found under "Aster" the characters of the great family of composite flowers to which the daisy belongs. Its place in the vast series is with the erigeron or stemactis, in which the ray florets are in several series. The seeds of the daisy are not furnished with a downy sail to carry them abroad, and the receptacle is conical. The botanical name, Bellis perennis, does not need to be explained, but its appropriateness is so pleasing as to have a poetical significance. It is truly a perennial beauty, and it is a matter for regret that it is but rarely seen in its proper beauty as a garden flower.

SPANISH IRIS.--This iris (I. xiphium) and the English iris (I. xiphioides) are so nearly alike that there can be no impropriety in regarding them as forms of one and the same species. They both belong to South-western Europe, where we meet with another differing immensely in character, the great Iris Iberica, a species lately introduced and now much sought after by collectors of hardy plants. The iris family afford the student a ready opportunity of observing some of the more prominent characters of monocotyledons in which the flowers are fashioned on a model greatly differing from those of dicotyledons. The former have no distinct calyx and corolla, but in the latter these are usually conspicuous and afford useful characters in the determination of species. As a garden plant the Spanish iris represents the bulbous-rooted section of iris, as the German iris represents the rhizomatous section. The bulbous species have flat or incurved leaves, but the fleshy, fibrous-rooted kinds have ensiform or "flag" leaves.