CHAPTER XXXVII. 



MONOCOTYLEDONS. 



Topic I : Monocotyledons with conspicuous petals 

 (Petaloidese). 



LESSON I. LILY FAMILY 



CLASSIFICATION. 



486. Species. It is not necessary for one to be a botanist in 

 order to recognize, during a stroll in the woods where the tril- 

 lium is flowering, that 

 there are many individual 

 plants very like each 

 other. They may vary 

 in size, and the parts 

 may differ a little in 

 form. When the flowers 

 first open they are usually 

 white, and in age they 

 generally become pinkish. In some in- 

 dividuals they are pinkish when they 

 first open. Even with these variations, 

 which are trifling in comparison with 

 the points of close agreement, we recog- 

 nize the individuals to be of the same 

 kind, just as we recognize 

 the corn plants grown 

 from the seed of an ear of ** 

 corn as of the same kind. 

 Individuals of the same 

 kind, in this sense, form a species. The white wake-robin, then, 

 is a species. 



251 



Fig. 324- 

 Trillium erec- 

 tum (purple form), 

 two plants from 

 one root-stock. 



