The American Cyclopædia (1879)/Daisy

DAISY, or Day's Eye (bellis perennis, Linn.), a little perennial plant, native of Europe, and better known in its varieties than as a species. It was formerly employed for edgings to borders.



Daisy (Bellis perennis).

In a wild state, the flower is borne upon a long slender peduncle. The florets or petals are numerous, narrow, white tipped with a slight stain of crimson, in a single row around the central florets of the disk. By cultivation it has become very double or multiplex, and has run into many curious and beautiful varieties. Of these the hen and chickens (prolifera) is the most singular, where the main flower heads are surrounded by several smaller flower heads. Besides this, the older sorts were the large double and the double quilled, the latter a deep rich crimson, with globular heads, and mostly cultivated as a pot plant. Of late years considerable attention has been directed to raising new sorts of diverse hues. Division of the plants, which make numerous offsets, is an easy and practicable mode of propagation.



Ox-Eye Daisy (Chrysanthemum leucanthemum).

—The ox-eye daisy (chrysanthemum leucanthemum), is a plant which abounds in the fields both of England and the United States. It is sometimes called daisy, but more properly ox-eye daisy or whiteweed. It is perennial, with a stem about 2 ft. high, bearing numerous large flowers with white rays and a yellow disk. It propagates with great rapidity, and when it gets possession of grass land is difficult to eradicate.