350 AUTUMN FLOWERS AND FRUITS. 



intricate branclilets, thorny at the points and branched at the 

 base, slender, smooth, and striated. The leaves are, for the 

 most part, reduced to thorns very much resembling the branch- 

 lets, so that the stems seem to be formed of an intricate mass 

 of sharp thorns. The flowers spring from the axils of the 

 smaller thorns, which branch out from the primary ones, and 

 are scarcely so long as the latter : indeed 



y " Every flower has a troop of swords 



Drawn to defend it." 



The flowers consist of a calyx, coloured yellow like the corolla, 

 and divided nearly to the base into two concave segments, 

 which are entire or minutely-toothed at the tips j a papiliona- 

 ceous corolla, also yellow, the petals scarcely separating even 

 when the flower is fully blown, but consisting of the usual 

 standard keel and wings ; ten stamens, united by their fila- 

 ments into a complete sheath around the ovary, which becomes 

 a turgid, few-seeded pod, scarcely longer than the calyx. 



Nearly related to the Umbelliferous family, and like it one 

 of the epigynous Calyciflores, is the common Tvy,^ a woody 

 evergreen climber, belonging to the Araliaceous family. The 

 earlier-formed stems of this very beautiful plant climb up 

 against trees or walls or rocks, clinging as they go by means 

 of small root-like protuberances, and spreading out the leaves 

 right and left flat against the body to which they adhere. In 

 this way its stems cover a large space. The dark green 

 glossy leaves borne on this part of the plant are angular and 

 three- or five-lobed, this being the form to which the term ivy- 

 leaved is applied. When the plants have grown to a consider- 

 able height, or to what may be considered mature age, they 

 throw out bushy tufted branches, like those of other shrubs, 



* Iledera Helix— VMe 22 E. 



