124 



THE NATURALIST. 



Sometimes the tube is altogether white, while the long teeth are green 

 and hairy. Supplementary specific characters are supplied by the last- 

 named parts. 



Vicia and Lotus. — Compound leaves are usually provided with petioles, 

 and generally with rather long ones. It is interesting accordingly to find 

 an exception in these genera, where the lowest pair of leaflets is almost close 

 upon the stem ; while in Lotus the leaves are absolutely sessile. There is 

 no room even for the stipules ordinarily characteristic of a papilionaceous 

 plant, the large broad portions which simulate stipules being in reality the 

 first or lowest of the two pairs of opposite leaflets. They are articulated 

 to the petiole in a way that stipules never are. 



Bellis perennis. — What queer little cones the common field-daisy lifts 

 up by midsummer ! When the flower fades, first the white rays drop ofl"; 

 then the receptacle that holds the yellow disk-florets begins to elevate 

 itself, and in a few weeks becomes a tall white cone like that in the inside 

 of a raspberry. The surface is thickly covered with the ripening ovaries, 

 every one of them retaining the withered corolla upon the summit, the 

 extremities often turning reddish ; — when mature, all drop away, begin- 

 ning from the base of the cone, and the latter, naked and erect, and set 

 in its little saucer of green leaves, (formerly the basket of the flower) gives 

 an exact image of such a cap as is placed by fable and picture upon the 

 heads of witches. 



Lychnis vespertina — The calyx, though tubular, readily separates into 

 its five component sepals, thus resembling the calyx of a Stellaria, on a 

 larger scale, and prettily illustrates the real nature of a tubular calyx, i. e. 

 shows that the latter is compound as to its elements, and that a one-leaved 

 calyx, like a monopetalous corolla, is only a term of convenience, no such 

 thing being actually found in nature. 



West-Riding Consolidated Natural- 

 ists' Society. — The delegates from the 

 various Societies in the above Union 

 met at Leeds, on the 9th ult., for 

 the transaction of business, after 

 which a general meeting was held at 

 the Working Men's Institution, Mr. 



G. Walker in the chair. Several 

 animated discussions took place on 

 various subjects in Natural History, 

 shewing the advantages of a well- 

 regulated Union of Societies. Mr. 

 Taylor spoke upon the irregularity 

 of development, and the habits and 

 structure of S.Bonihi/lifonnis. Larvse 



