196 FIRST STEPS IN GENERAL KNOWLEDGE. 



" Then the little scarlet pimpernel is related to 

 the primrose," said Mary. "I am glad I know 

 its family connections, for I could not tell anything 

 about it, except that it is the ' poor man's weather 

 glass/ giving him warning by 

 shutting up its blossoms before 

 rain." 



"The delicate bog pimpernel, 

 which mamma is trying to raise 

 in the greenhouse, must belong 

 to the same tribe," said Henry. 



" Yes ; and the yellow pimper- 

 WEED nel, or wood loose-strife, and the 

 t minimus.^ beautiful water violet, or feather- 

 foil, and the tiny chaff-weed, all these, and many 

 foreign families, make up this pretty tribe, con- 

 sisting entirely of monopetalous flowers." 



Eobert wished to know what that meant ; and 

 his father sent him to gather a primrose, and showed 

 him that, instead of having several separate flower- 

 leaves, or petals, all have grown together into one 

 petal, which can be pulled off in one, with the five 

 anthers growing to the inside of its tube. Hence 

 the flower is called monopetalous, or with one 

 petal : if it had several, it would be called poly- 



