xiv FAMILIAR GARDEN FLOWERS. 



the fact that it first acquired proper renown there, arid being used by a cul- 

 tivated people, obtained through them, an honourable place in literature 

 This plant, everywhere grown for its tenacious fibres, is comparatively 

 unknown in gardens, and the observer of vegetable forms who is unac- 

 quainted with it may be advised to sow a few common flax seeds in the 

 spring, and in due time look for an elegant tuft of vegetation crowned with 

 pretty blue flowers. p. 121. 



IRIS, from iris, the rainbow. N.O., Iridacece. LINNJEAN : 3, Tri- 

 andria ; 1, Monoyynia, This order consists entirely of herbs that have 

 fibrous, tuberous, or bulbous roots; but the "bulbs" of this order are 

 not formed of scales like those of lilies, but are woody, and multiply by a 

 new growth at the summit, which true bulbs never do ; hence the bulb-like 

 roots of these plants are called conns. The order comprehends the iris and 

 crocus of the northern hemisphere. All are furnished with sword-shaped 

 or sickle-shaped leaves ; the flowers are hermaphrodite, regular and irregular, 

 enclosed before opening in a sheath ; the perianth has six divisions arranged 

 in. two series ; there are three stamens ; the fruit is a three-celled capsule. 

 There are several edible plants in the order, and a few that furnish aromatic 

 drugs, and all the species are highly ornamental. Though a comparatively 

 unimportant order it comprises fifty-three genera and 550 species. p. 125. 



CRIMSON PETUNIA. See "Petunia," ^.viii., Vol. I. p. 129. 



ASTER, from Greek aster, a star. N.O., Composite, or Asteracece. 

 LINNJEAN : 19, Syngenesia ; 2, Superjlua. The composite plants have a strong 

 family likeness, and yet, owing to the breadth and fewness of the ray florets 

 in the flowers of some kinds, the beginner may occasionally fail to recognise 

 them. They are herbaceous plants, or small trees, with leaves opposite or in 

 whorls, entire or divided. Flowers hermaphrodite or unisexual, sometimes 

 in single heads or capitules, sometimes in compound umbels or corymbs. 

 The "composite" character is revealed when we examine one of the 

 capitules or stars. This is found to consist of a number of separate flowers, 

 varying in structure, packed together on a common receptacle. The 

 following may be accepted as a general statement of a very difficult case : 

 Every head of flowers, or florets, as they are technically named, has a 

 central part, or disc, and a circumference, or ray ; of these florets some 

 are regularly tubular, with their limb cut into four or five segments ; others 

 are slit up on one side, opened flat, and turned towards the circumference 

 of the head ; the latter are named ligulate florets. When in a head of flowers 

 all the florets are alike and ligulate, it belonged to the division Cichoracece, as 

 in the dandelion ; if the florets of the disc were tubular, and those of the 

 circumference only ligulate, it was referrible to Corymbiferte, as in the mari- 

 gold ; and when all the florets are alike tubular, both in the disc and ray, it 

 belonged to Cynarocephala, provided the involucre was at the same time stiff 

 and ovate, as in the thistle. The latter character was necessary in order to 

 distinguish Cynaroeephalce from those of Corymbifera, in which the ray is not 

 developed, as common groundsel. To these three divisions a fourth has in 



