WILD FLOWERS yellow and orange 



surrounded with many stamens. But let us see what 

 it really is. It is a large flower, all right, having six 

 large, concave sepals — not petals — which form ' an 

 orange-shaped cup, measuring from one and one-half to 

 three and one-half inches in diameter. Three of these 

 petal-like sepals are slightly larger than the others, 

 and form the inner row of an alternate arrangement 

 with the three smaller ones which support them. 

 They are bright yellow in colour, shading to a light 

 green at their base, and occasionally they are stained 

 with purple. Immediately inside this yellow-lined 

 bowl are the real petals, forming a ring around the 

 thick, compound pistil. They are stamen-like, fleshy, 

 oblong, and numerous, and are comparatively short, 

 less than half an inch in length. The many yellow 

 stamens are arranged in five, six, or seven rows directly 

 around the pistil, from which they radiate, and recurv- 

 ing prettily, fill the cup. The flat top of the great 

 stigma or pistil, which is compounded or com- 

 posed of many carpels or simple pistils, is orange-red 

 or yellow, and is strikingly decorated with a starlike 

 design, having from twelve to twenty-four rays. The 

 flowers are not possessed of a pleasing odour, and 

 this accounts for much of its unattractiveness. In 

 England they are called Brandy Bottles, a name 

 which knowing ones claim is suggested by its odour, 

 and which others attribute to the shape of its seed 

 cases. They are found either floating or erected above 

 the water, in common with its foliage. The large, 

 smooth, shining leaves are tough and leathery, and 



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