VIII. THE STEM. 145 



that in 400 B.C., JLSt a year before the death of Socrates 

 at Athens, this family of Stolid persons manifested them- 

 selves at Rome, shotting np from plebeian roots into places 

 where they had no business ; and preparing the way for 

 the degradation of the entire Roman race 

 under the Empire ; their success being 

 owed, remember also, to the faults of the 

 patricians, for one of the laws passed by 

 Calvus Stolo was that the Sibylline books 

 should be in custody of ten men, of whom 

 five should be plebeian, " that no falsifi- 

 cations might be introduced in favour of 

 the patricians." 



20. All this time, however, we have got 

 no name for the prettiest of all stems, 

 that of annual flowers growing high from 

 among their ground leaves, like lilies of 

 the .valley, and saxifrages, and the tall 

 primulas of which this pretty type, Fig. 

 15, was cut for me by Mr. Burgess years 



ago ; admirable in its light outline of the FIG. 15. 



foamy globe of flowers, supported and balanced in the 

 meadow breezes on that elastic rod of slenderest life. 



What shall we call it ? We had better rest from our 

 study of terms a little, and do a piece of needful classify- 

 ing, before we try to name it. 



21. My younger readers will find it easy to learn, and 

 convenient to remember, for a beginning of their science, 



