ILLUSTRATIONS. 7 



form deep purple,, has been lately found at Pinner, and also 

 at Chislehurst. 



Growing in wet open places, and amongst the earliest of wild 

 flowers, is another Ranunculaceous plant, petal-less like the 

 foregoing, namely, the Marsh Marigold,* a specious-looking 

 stout-growing perennial, with bold roundish leaves, hollowed 

 at the base in what is called a heart-shaped form, and whose 

 bright golden flowers have much the structure of those of the 

 Wood Anemone, but are larger and more conspicuous from 

 being elevated on a tall branching stem. They have a varying 

 number of about five or six coloured sepals and no real petals, 

 a tuft of numerous stamens, and a variable number of car- 

 pels or fruits, each one containing several seeds. Somewhat 

 resembling this, and one of the same group, but dwarfer, and 

 having both calyx and corolla present, so as to form a com- 

 plete regular polypetalous or many-petaled flower, which for 

 the purpose of comparison it may be useful to examine in 

 connection with the Marsh Marigold, is the Lesser Celandine 

 (Ranunculus Ficaria) , found abundantly in moist waste places, 

 and easily recognized by its glossy-looking yellow star-like 

 flowers, and its white-mottled angular-lobed leaves. 



The Ladies'-smock,t during the months of early spring, 

 imparts its own blush to the surface of moist low-lying 

 meadow land, among the herbage of which it grows up. This 

 plant, also a Polypetalous Exogen, sometimes called Bitter- 

 cress and Cuckoo-flower, is a dwarf herb, growing erect to 

 about a foot in height, and having pinnate leaves ; the flowers 

 are large and showy, and will serve to illustrate the structure 

 of a considerable polypetalous regular-flowered group or Order, 

 known as Cruciferous plants, or Cross-bearers, from the cir- 



* Caltha palustris~Pl&te I B. 



t Cardamine pratensis Plate 1 C. 



