THE GARLAND DAISY. Chrysanthemum coronarium. ARGUERITES may be princesses or peasants, but if human they must be good to be called Marguerites. They may also be pearls or flowers, and in either case they must be pure and pretty; and hence white daisies and chrysanthemums and pyrethrums are by the fanciful French termed, collectively and generally, Marguerites." Everywhere in Paris, from the 1st of January to the 31st of December, we may meet with Marguerites of exquisite beauty. If the weather is cold, they are in the glasshouses of the growers or the warm shops of the dealers in flowers. If the weather is warm, they are flowering out of doors; and most beautiful are the hedges and bands and beds made of Marguerites and petunias and marigolds that are in the gardens and promenades of Paris. Here they are comparatively unknown, and so it may be information to our readers to say that one of the best of the plants of this class, and the one most commonly employed in Paris, is Chrysanthemum frutescens, which may be grown in the form of a small tree, with elegantly notched leaves and charming white flowers. It The garland daisy-as, for the sake of a homely name, we designate the flower before us-belongs to the Marguerite series, but it is one of the least important, being but an annual, although a beautiful and useful flower. grows about two and a half feet high, has leaves elegantly cut, and flowers that vary from pure white to deep yellow, both single and double. It is a native of the Levant, but is ranked with hardy annuals, as it requires no special care in its cultivation, and it flowers freely when grown in common soil. A finer plant than this is the sub-tropical C. carinatum, which has leaves of a somewhat fleshy texture, finely cut and somewhat curled, and flowers various in colour. This, though a somewhat tender plant, may be grown in the usual way of a hardy annual, and will flower finely in common soil, if enjoying full sunshine and the plants not overcrowded in the clump. In the seed catalogues this will be found entered as Chrysanthemum tricolor, and there are at least half a dozen different varieties, all worth growing-in fact, the grower of annuals would do well to secure all the sorts that are offered, and grow them with care, more especially as to giving them room enough, for from July to September they will afford abundant entertainment in the variety and beauty of their flowers. The chrysanthemums, pyrethrums, and daisies are so nearly related that many members of these families are 66 known by these names interchangeably. The beautiful race of florists' pyrethrums, that deserve a place of honour in every garden, are often ranged under the larger genus as C. roseum, and the pretty pompom chrysanthemums are by the same licence known as Chusan Daisies." With the garland daisy before us, therefore, and not being in the humour to display our learning, we shall help on the page by quoting a portion of Eliza Cook's pretty poem, "Buttercups and Daisies". "I never see a young hand hold The starry bunch of white and gold, My smile expires into a sigh ; I feel a struggling in my eye, Through memory's chequered mazes, "There seems a bright and fairy spell And though old time has marked my brow Is, that the one who raises The turf-sod o'er me plant my grave With buttercups and daisies." We have some handsome wildings allied to the garland daisy, as, for example, the great ox-eye daisy (C. leucanthemum), which in the height of summer makes many miles of railway banks as white as if just snowed upon; the corn marigold (C. segetum), a thoroughly handsome flower, wholly yellow; and the corn feverfew (C. inodorum), the flowers of which are white with a yellow centre, with leaves finely cut. |