THE BOTANY OF A RAILWAY STATION 137 



which indicate the places of the side-flowers. They 

 will not be exactly square, but each will have two up- 

 right straight edges, a semi-circular edge above, and 

 a flatter, curved edge below, near to the stalk. Such 

 a face is nearly pentagonal or five-cornered, and a 

 five-cornered flower will do very well for each of the 

 four side-places. But the top-flower must fit in be- 

 tween the four side-flowers, and to do this neatly it 

 must be four-pointed. A five-pointed flower could 

 only fit very awkwardly into the squarish place at the 

 top of the flower-head. 



If the flowers of Muscatel were not so crowded 

 together they might be all alike. So too, where a 

 great many small flowers are packed together into 

 one bud, they may all have the same number of 

 points, and this we find in the flower-buds of umbel- 

 bearing flowers, such as Cow-parsnip. In the flower- 

 bud of Cow-parsnip there is a dense crowd of unex- 

 panded flowers, all five-pointed. But where the head 

 consists of only five flowers, four beneath and one on 

 the top, it cannot, so far as I know, be neatly and 

 closely packed in any other way than that which we 

 see in the Muscatel. 



THE BOTANY OF A RAILWAY STATION. 



May io. The platform of the little station where 

 we get in and out of the train every day was well 

 asphalted five or six years ago. The pavement is 

 still sound and good, except in a few places near the 

 palings, where plants have pushed beneath it, heaved 



