BUTTERCUPS 205 
gardens, but which is found wild in the mountains of 
the Lake district and Scotland, looks at first sight like 
a gorgeous double buttercup, but a closer examination 
will show that it lacks a corolla, and that its glory is 
given it by about fifteen overlapping golden sepals, which 
form a complete roof over the precious parts within. 
Moreover, as it depends upon large insects for cross- 
fertilisation, the overlapping prevents the entrance of 
ants, etc., which would only do harm. A big visitor, 
on the other hand, is enabled by his weight to get down 
to the honey and pollen and out again. 
The Marsh Marigolds, which Shakespeare called King- 
cups, and which Oxfordshire “natives” used to call 
“Water-blobs,” is a very similar plant in some ways. 
This also depends upon the bright golden sepals for 
attraction, having turned the petals into stamens, but 
the sepals usually number about five instead of fifteen. 
The Hellebores are a very curious group, for, though 
they have both calyx and corolla, they are of most 
unusual relative sizes, for the calyx is large and spread- 
ing, whilst the petals have come down to a small ring of 
tubes just outside the stamens, containing honey. A 
good example is the Christmas rose, the pure white calyx 
of which you know, but for the corolla of which you 
have probably never even looked. You will find it, how- 
ever, if you make a careful search around the stamens. 
The last three types of the Crowfoot tribe are at first 
sight widely divergent, for they are the Columbine, the 
Larkspur, and the Monk’s-hood. Though they cannot be 
called at all common in the wild state, you will have 
plenty of opportunity to study them in gardens, and if 
you pull off the petals and sepals and compare the 
essential organs with those of the buttercup, you will, 
