BRITISH WILD FLOWERS 35 



II. Spurges and Orchids 



There arc two groups of plants which are so 

 peculiar in their structure that beginners may be 

 excused if they find it difficult to classify them. 

 As they cannot very well be placed in any of 

 the groups which follow, I must draw attention 

 to them here. The spurges (Fig. 5) will be best 

 recognized by their caper-like fruits, and their 

 acrid, milky juice (see Group xvi). There are a 

 few other plants which yield a similar juice, as 

 the dandelion, lettuce, greater celandine (161), 

 and poppy, but these all belong to the compo- 

 sites (Group viii), or to the plants with open 

 blossoms and many stamens (Group xviii). 

 There are about a dozen spurges, and, like the 

 umbels and composites, they must be set aside 

 till the student has gained a considerable 

 knowledge of other plants. 



There are about fifty orchids (8) in the 

 British flora, and the group includes the most 

 curious and interesting flowers in the world. 

 They assume the shapes of bees, flies, spiders, 

 insects, animals, and other living things, and are 

 worth our best attention. One or two common 

 kinds (Fig. ii)are found in our meadows, and 

 if these are carefully studied it will be easy 

 to recognize the others. They belong to the 

 monocotyledons, but cannot be placed in the 

 same group (ix) because they have not six 



