IV. THE FLOWER. 75 



lies; the relations between the developing angle and 

 limiting curve being varied according to the depth of 

 cup, and the degree of connection between the petals. 

 Thus a rose folds them over one another, in the bud ; a 

 convolvulus twists them, the one expanding into a flat 

 cinquefoil of separate petals, and the other into a deep- 

 welled cinquefoil of connected ones. 



I find an excellent illustration in Veronica Polita, one 

 of the most perfectly graceful of field plants because of 

 the light alternate flower stalks, each with its leaf at the 

 base ; the flower itself a quatrefoil, of which the largest 



b 



FIG. 6. 



and least petals are uppermost. Pull one off its calyx 

 (draw, if you can, the outline of the striped blue upper 

 petal with the jagged edge of pale gold below), and then 

 examine the relative shapes of the lateral, and least upper 



