184 TYPES OF BRITISH PLANTS 
Lady’s Mantles are, perhaps, the poorest in flowers, but 
they win their way back to favour by their graceful 
crowth and handsome leaves. As a rule the flowers are 
fairly large for the size of the plant, and brightly coloured 
with white, pink, or yellow. Blue is entirely absent, and, 
as you may know, the garden rose, in spite of all the 
efforts of growers, refuses to produce a blue specimen 
for any known means of persuasion. 
The general type of flower has five sepals, five brightly 
coloured petals, a large number of stamens, and a large 
number of pistils. The yellow is peculiarly clear, and 
free from the orange tinge of the buttercup; it is in fact, 
or ought to be, your perfect yellow, which Bottom de- 
manded in the Midsummer Night's Dream. Nowhere 
have we a better example than in the well-known Silver 
Weed of the roadside, the grey silky leaves of which 
show up to perfection the lemon of the flower, in spite 
of the dust in the midst of which it thrives. Near to 
it one finds the creeping Potentilla, with rather darker, 
but equally clear, flowers; the hedge is snowed under 
with the May, and the fields near fragrant and bright 
with the Meadow Sweet, all kinsfolk of the Rose. The 
May flowers may still be lingering when the Wild Roses 
appear, and their hips and haws together brighten the 
winter hedges. In the earliest spring the Blackthorn 
faces the threatening snow shower with a pale imitation, 
and in a little while the orchards are a mass of white 
with plum and cherry blossom, the almond preceding 
them with its rich pink bloom, and the apple tree com- 
bining both tints in equal harmony. In the autumn 
the changing foliage of the tree is once more set off by 
the scarlet of the apple or the violet of the sloe. Nor 
would they be forced to rest their claims on beauty alone. 
