And still at every close she would repeat
The burden of the song--"the daisy is so sweet."'

The structure of the daisy has been noticed in a former paper, and its
appearance needs no description. But there is one other flower which I
meet with that must not escape us, and that is that noble plant, the
butter-bur (_Tussilago petasites_), named from a Greek word signifying a
broad covering. Its leaves, the largest produced by any British plant,
are sometimes from two to three feet across, and form a shelter for
poultry and small animals from the rain. It is a composite flower of the
sub-order _Tubulifloreæ_. The large club-shaped bunch of flower comes
before the leaves are more than partially developed, and are of a
pale-purple tint, and of a most delicious fragrance, not unlike the
heliotrope. When these die off, the magnificent leaves form quite a
beautiful object in the landscape. Artists are fond of introducing them
into the foreground of their sketches, and very ornamental they are; but
they should be careful not to place them where nature never designed
they should grow, among dry hill and rock scenery, or on the
sea-coast--for they are only to be found growing in moist and shadowed
places, and usually in the vicinity of a brook, to which they form a
very apposite adornment.--But here we are at home, and there stands
Fanny at my door with her load of treasure, George having trotted her
home by a shorter cut than that which I had followed; and unless Jack or
Sam can honour me with their company the next time I go flower-picking,
I shall surely, as the Scotch say, 'ride upon shanks naiggie.'




AN EVENING IN WESTMINSTER.