96 THE STORY OF THE PLANTS. 



many-seeded carpel. Such reductions in the num- 

 bers of parts are always a sign of high develop- 

 ment. Where the devices for effecting the work 

 are poor, many servants are necessary ; where 

 labour-saving improvements have been largely in- 

 troduced, a very few will do the same work, and 

 do it better. 



Monkshood, again, is another example of the 

 same tendency. Here, the one-sidedness which 

 we saw in the larkspur reaches a still more ad- 

 vanced development. The upper sepal is formed 

 into a brilliant blue hood, and it covers two curi- 

 ously shaped petals, which contain an abundant 

 store of honey. This arrangement is so splendid 

 for fertilisation that the plant is able largely to 

 reduce its number of stamens; and though it has 

 three carpels, these are combined at the base, 

 thus showing the first step towards a united ovary. 



I have treated the single family of the butter- 

 cups at some length, because I wished to show 

 you what sort of variations on a single plan were 

 common in nature. We see here a family, built 

 all on one scheme, but altering its architecture 

 and decoration in the most singular degree in its 

 different members. The simplest kinds are cir- 

 cular, symmetrical, orderly, and yellow; the high- 

 est are irregular, somewhat strangely shaped, and 

 blue or purple. This is the general line of evolu- 

 tion in flowers. They begin like the buttercup ; 

 they end like the monkshood. 



Familiar instances of round or radial flowers, 

 consisting of separate petals, are the dog-rose, the 

 poppy, the mallow, and the herb-Robert or wild 

 geranium. Most of these have five sepals and 

 five -petals ; but in the poppy the petals are usual- 



