6 CRUCIFORM FLOWERS. 



any thing of its name. This is not then a mere labor 

 of the memory, but a study and observation of facts 

 worthy the attention of a naturalist. 



CHAPTER II. 



OF CRUCIFORM FLOWERS. 



Several plants of this very natural family are 

 commonly cultivated for their beauty and fragrance, 

 and may be readily known by the four petals they 

 produce in the form of a cross, from whence the 

 order has derived its name of Crucifer^:. The only 

 difficulty against which we have to guard, on this, as 

 on all other occasions where we examine the luxuriant 

 productions of the garden, is the employment of those 

 monstrous flowers which we term double, as in the 

 Pink, the Rose, the Stock, and Wallflower, in which 

 the stamina become transformed into so many petals, 

 or even give place, as in the Pink, to an almost in- 

 numerable quantity of petals, bearing no proportion 

 to the ordinary number of stamens. In what manner 

 this change is produced may often be perceived on 

 examination. Sometimes, as in the Hollihock, it is 

 the anthers which are transformed into petals, but 

 more commonly, as in the Stock and the Rose, the 

 flat filaments become petals. In the Waterlily (JVym- 

 phce) the filaments are always a kind of petals, and 

 differ but little, except in color, from the true petals. 



Having premised thus much concerning the nature 

 of double flowers, let us now proceed to the analysis 

 of the flower of the single Stock-gilliflower or Wall- 

 flower ; and here you will immediately perceive an 

 exterior part which was wanting in the liliaceous 



