324 The Romance of Wild Flowers 
Now, what are the family characters whereby such 
differing forms may be reconciled? Taking the 
flower first as the most important part, it 1s a six- 
parted perianth, like those we found in the Amaryllis 
family, all the segments resembling petals, but in this 
case the ovary is within the flower (superior), not 
below it as in those. There are six stamens, and 
one or three styles. It is rarely that the stem takes 
on a shrubby character, but it does approach to this 
in the case of Butcher's Broom alone among our 
native species. The rootstock is either a bulb, or it 
is thickened, fleshy, and creeping. 
So much for the general characters; now let us 
consider the only species of the typical genus, which 
by the way is merely a naturalised plant found in 
no other British locality but Mickleham, in Surrey. 
This is the Purple Martagon Lily (Liliwm martagon), - 
with flowers two or three inches across, 
hanging in an inverted position, with the 
petals curled up round the flower-stalk and 
away from the stamens and style. The 
red-brown anthers are attached to the fila- : 
Petaland ments by their centres, and are so loosely | 
ay an hinged that the slightest movement of the 
air swings them this way or that. Such 
an anther is described technically as_ versatile ; 
if an insect touches. either end, 1t swings round 
and lays its whole length against the insect. 
Only long-tongued insects can get any good out 
of this flower in the shape of honey, and Miller, 
who has had better opportunities of observing this 
plant than falls to the British botanist, declares it 
is adapted for cross-fertilisation by Hawk-moths, 
