Classification of Plants 297 



pilferers. On account of the small seeds, it is called the gunpowder plant. 

 Children make pretty necklaces of the smooth shiny fruits. 



Dianthus (the Carnation genus) differs from Silene in the 

 smooth calyx tube, surrounded at base by several bracts. 

 Styles 2. Herbs with generally grass-like leaves. 



B. Calyx polysepalous. Ovary not raised. 



Spergula, Stellaria, and Cerastium are common 

 spreading weeds found in cultivated places. The flowers are 

 small and often self-fertilized, 



Stellaria media, N.^ has small white flowers with 2 -parted 

 petals. There is a double row of hairs at each internode, 

 which may convey the water off in drying the plant, or they 

 may absorb the water that runs down the stem. 



Order Ranunculace^e. 



Sepals 3-20, mostly 5, usually petaloid. Petals 5-15 or 

 wanting. Perianth usually deciduous. Stamens many, carpels 

 many and apocarpous (in Nigella, a garden flower, they are 5 

 and syncarpous). The flower parts are placed spirally or the 

 perianth (and carpels when united) may be cyclic. The 

 flowers are usually regular. In the garden flowers Aconitum 

 and Delphinium a single spur of the perianth makes the flowers 

 zygomorphic. 



Nectaries occur between the stamens and perianth ; they 

 are possibly suppressed stamens. The flowers are visited by 

 various insects. 



Leaves alternate except in Clematis^ with broad sheathing 

 bases. 



Herbs or twining shrubs, mostly perennial with rhizomes. 

 Each year's shoot ends in a definite inflorescence, a lateral bud 

 continuing the rhizome. 



A, Climbing shrubs with opposite leaves. 



Clematis. — Sepals valvate, 4-8. Carpels with feathery tails. 



B. Erect herbs with alternate or radical leaves. 

 * Sepals coloured. Petals none. 



Thalictrum. — Sepals 4-5, shorter than stamens. Carpels without 



tails. 

 Anemone. — Sepals many, longer than the stamens. Carpels 



tailed. 



