86 OCCASIONAL PAPERS. 



Nature than this, and derive a still greater intellec- 

 tual feast from a knowledge of the mysteries of life 

 that lie hidden in the Primrose. 



We discover at once, from the venation of the 

 leaves, that the Primrose helongs to the exogenous 

 order of plants, these veins forming a net work all 

 over the leaf, and not running parallel from one end 

 to the other, like those in a lily leaf. We notice, 

 moreover, that there is no stem here : you may ex- 

 press surprise at this, seeing so many blossoms 

 springing up from the root, each one at the head of 

 a stalk. But these stalks are pedicels or secondary 

 flower stalks, like those which spring from the head 

 of a Cowslip stalk, and if you cut through a root just 

 below where it emerges from the ground, you will 

 notice that all these pedicels spring from one circling 

 line marking the real stem, which in this case, is to 

 a certain extent suppressed, or rather arrested in its 

 growth. Occasionally, owing to certain circum- 

 stances, this peduncle shoots up to some height, 

 carrying the pedicels with it ; then we get the variety 

 commonly called the Oxlip, though not the true 

 species of that name. To this I shall refer again 

 presently. 



And now, ascending the stalk, we come to this 

 green cup at the summit, which all the members of 

 the botanical class will recognise as the calyx. 

 The component parts of this calyx, i.e., the sepals, 

 are five in number : that or some multiple of it, as 

 you know, is the prevailing number of organs in this 

 division of plants, though four shares the honour to 

 some extent. But you do not find that these sepals 

 are separate as in the case of the Kose, nor deciduous 



