VARIOUS MARRIAGE CUSTOMS. 93 



in Other respects they differ from one another, as 

 in the shape of the leaves, or in the way in which 

 the sepals are turned back to form a protection 

 against insects. One of the yellow buttercups, 

 too, commonly called the lesser celandine, has 

 varied from the rest of the race in a peculiar 

 fashion ; for it has only three sepals, instead of 

 five, according to the usual pattern ; while, as if 

 to make up for this loss in one part, it has eight 

 petals instead of five in its corolla. I merely 

 mention this fact to show how many small changes 

 occur in different flowers, even within the limits 

 of the same family. And though most of the 

 true buttercups are yellow, a few are white, such 

 as our own water-crowfoot, and the alpine butter- 

 cup called bachelors' buttons; while still fewer 

 are red, like the turban ranunculus of our spring 

 gardens. 



But besides the true buttercups, we have also 

 a vast group of buttercup-like plants, descend- 

 ants of the same primitive five-petalled ances- 

 tor, and regarded as members of the buttercup 

 order. In these we can trace some curious gra- 

 dations. The little winter aconite of our gar- 

 dens has this peculiarity : the petal and nectary 

 have grown into a sort of tubular honeycup, much 

 more attractive to greedy insects than the simple 

 scale-bearing petal of the buttercups. But as this 

 involves lossof expanded colour- surface, the winter 

 aconite has made up for the deficiency by colour- 

 ing its calyx a brilliant yellow, so as to resemble 

 a corolla. Several other buttercup-like plants 

 have even lost their petals altogether, and make 

 coloured sepals do duty in their place. The 

 marsh-marigold, for instance, is one of these ; 

 what look like petals in it are really very brilliant 



