THE VALLON DES FLEURS. 165 



as we are accustomed to speak of flowers. So I will 

 take from the border of the copse a real " flower," and 

 a curious one, the Plagius. I dare say you might call 

 it a " Bachelor's button," or something of that sort ; 

 but it has no popular name, as far as I am aware. 

 If you wish to know what it is like, you have only 

 to take a common Ox-eye daisy and pull off all the 

 white petals (ray florets) as poor Margaret does in 

 " Faust," leaving the orange disc ; that is exactly like 

 a Plagius. If you show Plagius to a friend he will 

 say, " Ha, ha, I know how you made that flower. 

 It's no use trying to play your tricks on me ! " There 

 are even botanists who declare the Plagius to be a 

 mere monstrosity, a miserable deformity, a daisy 

 deprived of its frill by some curious freak of nature. 

 But if this orange button were a mere monstrosity, it 

 would tend, when it varied, as all vegetables do, to revert 

 to the type from which it has departed. Instead of 

 this, it is stated that flowers of Plagius have been 

 found provided with a ray quite different from that of 

 the Leucanthemum. The plant is particularly abundant 

 in the valley of the Vesubia, just beyond Levens. 



After this yellow disc let us pick another button, 

 only this time blue ; a flower which will be equally 

 new to English botanists. This also we can find 

 near the entrance of the valley ; it has no English 

 name. Linnaeus called it Globularia (Fig. 64). There 

 are several species, one of which, G. Alypum, flowers 

 not only in the Spring, but also through the Winter 

 months. The inflorescence is in a head, like that of a 

 Composite or a Scabious, and the floral envelopes are 

 in fives ; the corolla is bilabiate or strap-shaped, and 

 the stamens are four, the upper or posterior one being 



