Oxeye Daisy Chrysanthemum leucanthemum

History and Traditions & Folklore

Oxeye daisy, a midsummer flower known a marguerite, was used as an oracle. A daisy is the star flower of Gretchen in Goethe's Faust: "He loves me, he loves me not". Those who are pregnant as "Boy, girl, boy girl as they pluck the raylike flowers. Girls would put the flower under their pillows to see dreams of their future husbands. ^{Claudia Muller-Ebeling, Wolf-Deieter Storl Witchcraft Medicine(1998)}

The herb is under the sign Cancer, and under the dominion of Venus, and therefore excellently good for wounds in the breast, and very fitting to be kept both in oils, ointments, and plaisters, as also in syrup. The greater wild Daisy is a wound herb of good respect, often used in those drinks or salves that are for wounds, either inward or outward. The juice or distilled water of these, or the small Daisy, doth much temper the heat of choler, and refresh the liver, and the other inward parts. A decoction made of them and drank, helps to cure the wounds made in the hollowness of the breast. The same also cures all ulcers and pustules in the mouth or tongue, or in the secret parts. The leaves bruised and applied to the privities, or to any other parts that are swollen and hot, doth dissolve it, and temper the heat. A decoction made thereof, of Wallwort and Agrimony, and the places fomented and bathed therewith warm, gives great ease to them that are troubled with the palsy, sciatica, or the gout.
Nicholas Culpeper, 1653