CHAP ERR: ahil, 
LILIES AND ORCHIDS 
_ THE flowers which we have to consider in this chapter 
form a startling contrast to those of the grasses. In 
them we found no calyx or corolla, or at best these were 
represented by tiny and insignificant scales. Interest 
there might be in the structure of the flower and in 
its working, but of striking beauty there was nothing. 
Now we pass at one bound to the most gorgeous and 
resplendent of our British plants. For sheer loveliness 
of form and colour in flower there is, among our: wild 
flowers, nothing to rival this second group of the mono- 
cotyledons, although, if we include plants that are culti- 
vated, the blood-red crimson splash made by a field of 
sainfoin clover upon a landscape might come near in the 
contest for pride of place. 
Just recall one or two scenes in which this class of 
flowers plays a prominent part. We are standing in 
summer in the Fen country, on one of the long river- 
banks which save the fertile soil from being drowned, 
and from it we look over miles and miles of farm-land, 
the scanty houses dotted about, often protected by a 
clump of tall poplars. Here and there a windmill’s 
sails speed merrily round, working the pumps that lift 
the water from the drains to the higher level of the 
K 129 
