88 CLASS HEXANDRIA. 



Each plant consists of a bulb sending up 2 narrow 

 or linear leaves, from the centre of which arises a 

 scape, terminating in a spathe or sheath, answering 

 the protecting purpose of a calyx. The corolla 

 white, tipped with green, hangs pendulous or droop- 

 ing, and is situated superiorly with regard to the germ ; 

 it consists of 6 petals in 2 ranges, but of 2 different 

 forms, the 3 inner being one half shorter than the 

 3 outer, and notched or emarginate at their ex- 

 tremities. The Snowdrop is a native of the shady 

 woods and meadows of the south of Europe. 



The Daffodil, or Narcissus, is the next early 

 flower of this class, which presents itself for our 

 inspection in almost every garden, but being cultivated 

 for show rather than science, the double kind is gen- 

 erally preferred, from which the young botanist can 

 learn nothing of the genus or true character of the 

 flower, the stamina and pistillum, in this case, being 

 transformed, as in other double flowers, into a mul- 

 tiplicity of irregular petals. In this transformation, the 

 filaments of the stamens are enlarged into an addition- 

 al set of inner petals, and the anthers are destroyed ; 

 but, as in the common double Daffodil, there are 

 many more than 6 additional petals, and no pistillum, 

 it appears that the latter organ is, in fact, changed 

 into the monstrous and infertile rudiments of one or 

 more additional flowers. This is very obviously the 

 case in some double Roses, double Wall-flowers, and 

 Stocks, which often present a later flower, or even 

 flower branch, coming out from the centre of a former 

 withered one. The Daffodil, in its natural simple 

 form, unaltered by the luxuriance of the soil, presents 

 from the bosom of a preceding spathe or chaffy 

 sheath, one or more flowers, consisting of a superior 

 corolla of 6 equal petals or parts, and within them 

 an interior, funnel-shaped lepanthium, or nectary of a 



