This well-known plant is to be found all over Britain. It is in flower
from spring to late autumn, and I think it is the first flower little
children learn to recognise.
But it is often a long time before they get to know anything more about
the Daisy than its name, and yet it is an interesting flower, as well as
a pretty one.
If you gather a Daisy, and then gently pick it to pieces, you find that
it is made up of a great many tiny little flowers crowded together on a
pear-shaped centre. These tiny flowers are of two kinds; those in the
centre are yellow and are shaped like little tubes, each of which is
edged with five points. But in the outer row of flowers, one of the five
points has grown into a long white strap, which is tinged with pink and
red at the tip.
These pretty white straps are arranged in a double frill round the
yellow centre.
At the end of the flower-stalk there is a thick ring of small green
pointed leaves, and these, as well as the stalks, are slightly hairy.
The Daisy leaves grow in a rosette close to the ground. They are oval,
and each leaf has hairs all over it and round the edges.