viii FAMILIAR GARDEN FLOWERS. 



form a sheath round the stem. The flowers vary much in their disposition, 

 having sometimes a whorl of three leaves close to them or at some distance 

 below. The calyx consists of three to six pieces ; the corolla contains petals 

 that have a distinct numerical relation to the leaves of the calyx, being equal, 

 double or triple. Thus the buttercups have usually a calyx of five leaves 

 and a corolla of five petals ; but the pilewort, or lesser celandine, has usually 

 three sepals and nine petals ; while the peony has five sepals and five to ten 

 petals. The stamens are generally numerous, distinct, and situated under 

 the ovary. The carpels, or seed-vessels, are sometimes one-seeded and 

 collected in a head or capitule ; or many-seeded and combined in a whorl ; 

 or are compressed so as to form a many-celled pistil. All the ranunculaceous 

 plants have watery juices, and are more or less acrid and poisonous, and the 

 roots are often more decidedly poisonous than the stems and leaves. But the 

 poisonous principle is destroyed by boiling or drying ; hence some of these 

 plants are used for food when cooked, and the poisonous crowfoots of our 

 meadows, which are never touched by cattle, become wholesome fodder when 

 dried in the form of hay. The aconite may be distinguished from all other 

 members of the ranunculus family by the fact that the large uppermost 

 segment of its calyx overhangs the petals and other parts in the form of a 

 helmet. p. 5. 



PETUNIA, from pettin, the Brazilian name for tobacco. N.O., 

 Solanaceee. LINN^EAN: 5, Pentandria ; 1, Monogynia. This order is com- 

 posed of herbs or shrubs, rarely of arborescent plants, with colourless juices, 

 round or irregularly angled stems or branches, sometimes armed with thorns 

 or prickles ; their leaves alternate, simple, entire, or lobed ; the inflorescence 

 is variable, mostly axillary, sometimes terminal; the flowers regular and 

 united; the calyx is five-parted, persistent; corolla monopetalous, five- cleft 

 or four-cleft, regular, deciduous ; stamens inserted upon the corolla, as many 

 as the segments of the limb, and alternate with them ; ovary two or four- 

 celled, stigma simple ; fruit either a capsule or a berry ; seeds numerous. A 

 large and somewhat anomalous order, comprehending many useful and many 

 noxious plants, as, for example, the potato, tomato, nightshade, egg-plant, 

 capsicum, henbane, and tobacco. Between the flower of the potato and that 

 of the petunia what a difference, and yet we are to regard them as somewhat 

 nearly related ! p. 9. 



LILIUM, from leirion, or from the Celtic li, white. N.O., Liliacea. 

 LINN.EAN: 6, Hexandria ; 1, Monogynia. The lily worts are endogenous 

 plants widely scattered over the globe, and comprehending the dracasuas, 

 yuccas, aloes, and asparagus, as well as the true lilies, which for the most 

 part produce fleshy bulbs of annual duration. The leaves are always simple 

 and undivided, and usually have the veins running straight from the base to 

 the apex, but in some dracaenas they diverge from the midrib to the margin. 

 The flower consists of six perianth pieces, six stamens with anthers opening 

 inwards, and a superior three- celled ovary changing to a three-celled fruit- 



