36 THE STORY OF PLANT LIFE 
are a veritable paradise for birds. Then the Golden 
Buttercups which gild the meadows, but do not 
colour the butter, are enshrined in everyone’s heart 
as part of the splendour of summer and bright days. 
The Wind Flower is also a lovely plant, sung by the 
poets. 
The little Mousetail lurks in the furrows of the 
cornfield and has but few stamens, and a curious 
scape with pinkish flowers. The Marsh Marigold, 
too, is another favourite, gathered by every child in 
spring as the May Blob, or, as they call it here in 
Leicestershire, Water Blob. Columbine and Lark- 
spur are favourites in the garden. Monk’s Hood is 
also found there, too, and has been used for nerve 
trouble. Once the Hellebore or Christmas Rose, 
one of our earliest flowering plants, was an antidote 
for madness, when in former days many quaint 
remedies were employed. 
The general characters by which the members of 
this interesting order may be recognised are the five 
petals and five sepals, which are sometimes regular 
as in the Buttercup, or irregular as in Larkspur and 
other flowers with a spur, and the numerous stamens 
which are indefinite, which are inserted upon the 
receptacle. 
There are generally many carpels which either 
contain one or many seeds, and usually the fruit is 
an achene, but in Baneberry a berry. 
Often the leaves are all radical, arising from the 
root, as in many Buttercups, Bear’s Foot, Peony, or 
