The plant-lore & garden-craft of ShakespeareEllacombe, Henry Nicholson
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The plant-lore & garden-craft of Shakespeare
Ellacombe, Henry Nicholson
Gardens in literature; Plants in literature; Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616 -- Knowledge -- Botany
The only other point in the botany of the Daisy that occurs to me is its
geographical range. The old books are not far wrong when they say "it
groweth everywhere." It does not, however, grow in the Tropics. In
Europe it is everywhere, from Iceland to the extreme south, though not
abundant in the south-easterly parts. It is found in North America very
sparingly, and not at all in the United States. It is also by no means
fastidious in its choice of position--by the river-side or on the
mountain-top it seems equally at home, though it somewhat varies
according to its situation, but its most chosen habitat seems to be a
well-kept lawn. There it luxuriates, and defies the scythe and the
mowing machine. It has been asserted that it disappears when the ground
is fed by sheep, and again appears when the sheep are removed, but this
requires confirmation. Yet it does not lend itself readily to gardening
purposes. It is one of those--
"Flowers, worthy of Paradise, which not nice art
In beds and curious knots, but Nature's boon
Pour'd forth profuse on hill, and dale, and plain,
Both where the morning sun first warmly smote
The open field, and where the unpierc'd shade
Imbrown'd the noontide bowers."
_Paradise Lost_, iv, 240.
Under cultivation it becomes capricious; the sorts degenerate and
require much care to keep them true. As to its time of flowering it is
commonly considered a spring and summer flower; but I think one of its
chief charms is that there is scarcely a day in the whole year in which
you might not find a Daisy in flower.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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