ILLUSTRATIONS. 119 



Another Dictyogen is found in the Herb-Paris,^ which be- 

 longs to the Trilliaceous family, — though this is by some bota- 

 nists resrarded as a section only of the Liliaceous Order. It 

 is a dwarf herb with a creeping rootstock, producing a simple 

 erect stem, six to nine inches or rarely somewhat more in 

 height, furnished with a few scales at the base, but otherwise 

 naked to the top, where grows a whorl of broadly ovate or 

 obovate leaves, two to three inches long, strongly marked with 

 a few longitudinal ribs, and netted between them with finely 

 reticulated veins. In the centre of this guard of leaves stands 

 a single erect flower on a stalk of moderate length, and con- 

 sisting of a perianth of eight segments, of a yellowish-green 

 colour, the outer series narrow-lanceolate and much broader 

 than the inner ones, which are quite linear ; within this eight 

 erect stamens, which are awl-shaped, with the anther-cells 

 aflixed one on each side near the middle. The ovary is supe- 

 rior, four- celled, with four styles, and becomes a succulent 

 bluish-black berry. The name Paris is said to come from par, 

 paris, equal, in allusion to the regularity of numbers occurring 

 in the parts — four leaves, four sepaline and four petaline divi- 

 sions, twice four stamens, four styles, and a four-celled ovary, 

 — which latter becomes a lurid-purple berry, whence rustics 

 give the plant the name of One-berry, or True-Love. 



We must ROW select a few illustrations from the different 

 families of Monocotyledons, commencing with those in which 

 the sexes are separated. 



• Of this group, the Common Frog-bit,t itself the type of 

 the Hydrocharidaceous family, furnishes an illustration. This 

 is a pretty water plant, with rather slender stems, producing 

 here and there tufts of floating leaves and submerged roots. 



* Paris quadrifolia — Plate 20 A. 



t Mydrocharis Morsus-rance — Plate 20 B. 



