CROSS-BEARING FLOWERS. 121 



crumpled, and easily fell off. The stem was woody, 

 like a little shrub, and the leaves were white 

 underneath." 



" That is the common rock-rose,* and there are 

 others of its family with which you may one day 

 make acquaintance ; such as the hoary dwarf rock- 

 rose of the North of England, and the white moun- 

 tain rock-rose, which grows in some parts of 

 Somerset and Devon. I am not aware of any 

 useful qualities ascribed to these plants, therefore 

 I leave them for a most important and highly 

 useful tribe called the CRUCIFEROUS tribe." 



"That must have something to do with 'a 

 cross,' " said Henry. " Is there any fancy about 

 them, such as there is about the passion-flower ?" 



" No ; but each plant is actually a ' cross-bearer,' 

 as its name implies, for the flowers of the whole 

 tribe are in the form of a cross." 



?< What an odd shape for a flower ?" said Mary ; 

 and she tried to recollect seeing one, but in vain, 

 until her father explained that he meant that sort 

 of cross, called the Maltese cross, in which the 

 limbs are all equal. Then she quickly remem- 

 bered, that the common single wallflower has four 



* Hdiantlutmum vulgare. 



