INTEODUCTOEY. 5 



class ! I scarcely knew a Dandelion from a Buttercup when 

 I came here, and now I know the Michaelmas Daisy, and 

 the Sea-Orache, and the Knot-grass, and ever so many other 

 things. There are jolly plants by the Avon, and heaps of 

 bothering weeds choking up the stream, and I know a lane 

 in Shropshire where garden flowers grow on the banks. We 

 find some knobby stories about flowers in our school books, 

 which will make the young operatives open their eyes very 

 wide. Oh, I shall be able to help in a first-rate way, if only 

 you can knock the principles of the science into my stupid 

 head!" 



Esther took a few minutes to collect and clear her thoughts, 

 and then she began her first lesson, Edward gravely taking 

 notes as in a lecture -room. 



" All plants, from the forest tree to the microscopic Fungus, 

 are divided into three classes, according to the form of the 

 seed: I. The TWO-LOBED (Dicotyledonous). II. The ONE- 

 LOBED (Monocotyledonous) . III. The LOBELESS (Acotyledo- 

 nous). The greatest part of our trees and plants belong to 

 the first class the Two-lobed ; bulbous plants, water plants, 

 Grasses, Sedges, and a few other families, belong to the One- 

 lobed or second class ; Ferns, Mosses, Lichens, Sea-weeds, and 

 Fungi, belong to the third or Lobeless class. The first two 

 classes contain the FLOWEEING PLANTS, the third the FLOWEE- 

 LESS PLANTS. If you take a Bean and a 

 grain of com and keep them in a warm, 

 moist place, you will see the Bean open in 

 two valves or lobes (fig. 1, A), and a small 

 bud will arise from the lower end, which is 

 the embryo of the new plant (fig. 1, B). 

 This proves the Bean to be a member of the 

 first, or Two-lobed class. The corn, on the 

 other hand, makes no division it has only one lobe ; roots 

 push out at the lower end ; and the bud, containing stem, 

 leaves, and flower, shoots from the upper. It stands for an 



