Daisies 305Anthemis cotula Linnaeus
stinking chamomile
Europe, northern and western Asia; introduced elsewhere
(Folk credentials questionable) ‘Some of our English housewives call it Iron
Wort, and make an unguent for old sores’, John Josselyn recorded in seven-
teenth-century New England.^331 Anthemis cotula was a sufficiently abundant
cornfield weed in southern Britain in medieval times to have acquired an
Anglo-Saxon name, but though long notorious for blistering the hands of
harvesters and reputedly a powerful insect repellent, published assertions
that it was used in folk medicine^332 are too unspecific to be accepted without
fuller evidence.
Chrysanthemum segetum Linnaeus
corn marigold
Europe, western Asia; introduced into North Africa, North and
South America
(Folk credentials questionable) Folk records of the use of marigolds proba-
bly relate to the common garden plant,Calendula officinalis Linnaeus, rather
than to the once common cornfield weed Chrysanthemum segetum.Suspi-
ciously, though a decoction drunk as a cure for measles in Wicklow has been
attributed to the wild plant,^333 comparable drinks feature for that among the
uses of ‘marigolds’ (which are more likely to have been the garden plant) in
Norfolk^334 and Montgomeryshire.^335 The cornfield weed has passed simply as
‘marigold’ in parts of the north of England, but elsewhere it has tended to
have at least ‘wild’ or ‘field’ preceding that.
Leucanthemum vulgare Lamarck
Chrysanthemum leucanthemum Linnaeus
ox-eye daisy
Europe, Siberia; introduced into North America, Australasia
Though found over much of the British Isles,Leucanthemum vulgare appears,
curiously, to have been recorded as a folk herb only from the Highlands and
limited areas of Ireland. Some of the recorded uses are shared with the ordi-
nary daisy,Bellis perennis,for which this large-flowered relative may have
served in part as an alternative; for others, however, it seems to have been
targeted specifically.
Inthe Highlands a tea made from the plant has been drunk for asthma,
while the juice has been not only mixed with honey as a cough cure but applied