48 FIRST STEPS IN GENERAL KNOWLEDGE. 



flowers are naked ; that is, they have no petals, or 

 flower-leaves, but only those parts which are 

 necessary for the formation of the seed. The ber- 

 ries are very poisonous, but the root can be manu- 

 factured into a kind of sago. The hood you speak 

 of is a very curious mantle for the protection of 

 these naked flowers ; it is called the spathe. There 

 is another plant which you are fond of searching 

 for, and which bears its flowers on a spadix or 

 club, but it has no spathe to wrap them up in." 



The children could not guess what plant it was 

 until their father said it grew in ditches, when they 

 immediately recollected the Bulrush.* 



"Not that it is properly a rush" continued 

 their father ; "for the rush tribe has a higher place 

 in the vegetable system ; but it is a curious sedgy 

 plant, bearing numerous and nearly naked flowers 

 on its spadix. I cannot enter into descriptions 

 which belong to the scientific part of botany ; but 

 I may often lead you to notice the more conspicuous 

 features of the different tribes, and this will be a 

 great help to you. The grasses and the arum 

 group will be sufficient for our present conver- 

 sation : to-morrow we will talk about the palms." 



* Typha. 



