54 



RECEEATIVE SCIENCE. 



you are now in possession of tlie key to some 

 of their peculiarities. If you use your eyes 

 you cannot miss finding species different from 

 those most common ones upon which we have 

 founded our first lesson. Gather all you can ; 

 never mind, at first, if you do not know their 

 names, hut put them together, and compare 

 in every part — leaves on the stem, and leaves 

 springing from the root-crown, hairs or no 

 hairs on any part, pistils plain or otherwise. 

 These exercises will teach you how to look 

 at plants, and make the very commonest 

 weeds convey as much instruction as you 

 coidd get from the rarest exotic. We have 

 dwelt somewhat upon this ranunculus family, 

 not only because of the well-marked cha- 

 racters of its members, but because so many 

 of them are familiar to us aU from childhood, 

 and meet us in every country walk. "We 

 must now say adieu, and look to the rest of 

 our Handful. 



Take another look at the poppies. You 

 could not mistake a poppy, putting colour out 

 of the question, for a buttercup. The petals 

 composiag the corolla are separate ; it is true 

 the stamens are numerous, and both are 

 attached to the flower in the same manner as 

 in the ranunculus, but here the resemblance 

 ends. The calyx, as we have seen (Fig. 20), 

 is entirely distinct, both in its divisions and 

 in its development, and the round central 

 pistil in one piece of the poppy (Fig. 6) is 

 abundantly diverse from the many pistils of 

 the ranunculus (Fig. 4). There are many 

 other differences, which at present we are not 

 prepared for. 



We go to the waUflower (Fig. 7), the water- 

 cress, or the charlock (Fig. 15), aU plants of 

 the same great botanical section as the ranun- 

 culus and the poppy; that is to say, they have 

 many-petalled flowers, and petals and sta- 

 mens (Fig.l4) are similarly attached ; but how 

 different are they otherwise. The petals are 

 clawed (Fig, 8), the stamens are definite in 

 number, not many, and the central pistil is 

 altogether dissimilar, as we shall see more 



clearly when we come to examine our basket 

 of fruits. Now, the waUflower, the water- 

 cress, the wild mustard, and many similar 

 plants, belong to a most important family, 

 called the CrucifersD, or cross-like plants, the 

 petals being arranged in the shape of a cross, 

 as a very little examination will show. Turn- 

 ing for a moment from wild to cultivated 

 plants, you wiU. find the characters of the cru- 

 cifera well marked in any turnip, cabbage, or 

 radish, which may chance to run to seed in 

 your garden. In an economical point of view, 

 there are few plant famUies more valuable to 

 man than these crucifers. 



Buttercup, poppy, wallflower, each types 

 of their own particular family, have regular 

 flowers; you can di- 

 vide them in any direc- 

 tion through the centre 

 into two equal halves. 

 Not so our sweet little 

 violet (Fig. 22), which 

 holds its place beside 

 them. It, too, is many- 

 petaled, and has sta- 

 mens and petals at- 

 tached like the others, 

 but its flower is irregu- 

 lar ; to divide its five 

 petals equally, you 

 must cut the centre in 

 one direction only. The stamens and pistil, a 

 single glance wiU show, have their distinctive 

 marks. 



The lychnis, stitchwort, and chickweed 

 bring us back to the regular flowers. The 

 stamens (Figs. 16, 19) are more than in the 

 waUflower, fewer than in poppies or butter- 

 cups. The petals are clawed (Fig. 10), the 

 shape different, and, speciaUy, the pistU 

 (Figs. 17, 18) differs from the plants we have 

 already examined. 



Lastly, take the common wayside gera- 

 nium (Figs. 11, 12), which we gathered into 

 our Handful. Still we find the distinct petals 

 attached with the stamens as before, only, at 



Fig. 22. —Blossom of 

 Violet, a, corolla ; b, 

 calyx; c, peduncle or 

 flower-stalk ; d, bracts ; 

 e, spur of corolla. 



