s of the
moon, Artemis, who particularly governed the female health.
Similarly, our bright little Daisy, "the constellated flower that
never sets," owns the name Herb Margaret. The Moon Daisy is
also called Bull Daisy, Gipsies' Daisy, Goldings, Midsummer
Daisy, Mace Flinwort, and Espilawn. Its young leaves are
sometimes used as a flavouring in soups and stews. The flower
was compared to the representation of a full moon, and was
formerly dedicated to the Isis of the Egyptians. Tom Hood wrote
of a traveller estranged far from his native shores, and walking
despondently in a distant land:--

"When lo! he starts with glad surprise,
Home thoughts come rushing o'er him,
For, modest, wee, and crimson-tipped
A flower he sees before him.
With eager haste he stoops him down,
His eyes with moisture hazy;
And as he plucks the simple bloom
He murmurs, 'Lawk, a Daisy'"!

DANDELION.

Owing to long years of particular evolutionary sagacity in
developing winged seeds to be wafted from the silky pappus of its
ripe flowerheads over wide areas of land, [148] the Dandelion
exhibits its handsome golden flowers in every field and on every
ground plot throughout the whole of our country. They are to be
distinguished from the numerous hawkweeds, by having the
outermost leaves of their exterior cup bent downwards whilst the
stalk is coloured and shining. The plant-leaves have jagged edges
which resemble the angular jaw of a lion fully supplied with teeth;
or, some writers say, the herb has been named from the heraldic
lion which is vividly yellow, with teeth of gold-in fact, a dandy
lion! Again, the flower closely resembles the sun, which a lion
represents. It is called by some Blowball, Time Table, and Milk
"Gowan" (or golden).

"How like a prodigal does Nature seem,
When thou with all thy gold so common art."

In some of our provinces the herb is known as Wiggers, and
Swinesnout; whilst again in Devon and Cornwall it is called the
Dashelflower. Botanically it belongs to the composite order, and is
named _Taraxacum Leontodon_, or eatable, and lion-toothed. This
latter when Latinised is _dens leonis_, and in French _dent de
lion_. The title Taraxacum is an Arabian corruption of the Greek
_trogimon_, "edible"; or it may have been derived from the Greek
_taraxos_, "disorder," and _akos_, "remedy." It once happened
that a plague of insects destroyed the harvest in the island o