LILIES AND ORCHIDS 131 
grandly he used it. The stream goes tumbling over rock- 
strewn slopes; the trees are just opening their buds, and 
clothing the hills, until they rise to the mountains at 
the head of the valley, where no trees may be, and 
all the level surface at the foot is carpeted with “a 
host of Golden Daffodils, flutterimg and dancing in the 
breeze.” 
Still keeping to this same group, we find included 
the quaintest flowers in all nature, the great Orchid 
family. Of these we have not many common varieties 
in England, and a dozen or so will complete the list 
you are likely to find in casual wandering; but if you 
would see of what the family is capable, go to the 
Orchid House at Kew in the summer-time, and examine 
all the fantastic shapes, the brillant colouring, and 
the mocking imitation of insects that are around you, 
and then I think you will agree that for wonders of 
the flower alone this group has no equal in plant-life. 
Sepals and petals alike take their share in the glory. 
The calyx is not sobered down to green, as in the 
majority of flowering plants, but both of the protecting 
envelopes take their part in the brilliant display. We 
have left the sober grasses with one step, and most 
certainly Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like 
one of these. 
But here an objection may be raised. You will say, 
“Tt was stated in the first chapter that the production 
of seed was the great test upon which classification was 
settled. If these are the most beautiful flowers in the 
world, why should they come here, and not at the last, 
as the climax to which we at last arrive?” The answer 
is that these flowers have just the same essential parts 
as the grasses, and as those to which we shall come later, 
