16 SPRING FLOWERS. 



stamens which are attached in two rows to the inner face of 

 the tube. The flowers are purple or in some plants white, 

 very sweet-scented, and succeeded by a " vesture gay" of red 

 or yellow berries, containing a single seed ; this was present 

 in the form of a pendulous ovule in the urn-shaped ovary, which 

 stood free within the base of the perianth. 



Of the same Monochlamydeous division, and growing in si- 

 milar habitats, but of much more frequent occurrence, is the 

 Wood Spurge/* representing the varied and extensive Euphor- 

 biaceous family. This plant is in early spring conspicuous on 

 account of its umbels of light yellowish- green bracts. It has 

 almost woody stems, of a reddish colour, bearing narrow- 

 oblong leaves, above which the umbel of five or six principal 

 branches is produced. These bear floral leaves or bracts in 

 pairs, of a yellowish -green colour, and between each pair a 

 small green body, apparently a flower but really a flower- head, 

 consisting of a small cup-shaped involucre resembling a peri- 

 anth, having four minute teeth, and alternating with them as 

 many horizontal yellowish glands, which are here crescent- 

 shaped ; within these are several stamens each bearing a 

 pointed filament and a minute scale at its base, thus showing 

 them to be distinct male flowers ; while in the centre is a 

 single female flower on a recurved stalk, consisting of a three- 

 celled ovary and a three-cleft style. This ovary grows into a 

 fruit of three carpels, called cocci, whence the fruit is called 

 tricoccous. 



Of a different character, still Monochlamydeous, is the 

 Wych Elm,t the common wild Elm of Scotland, Ireland, 

 and the north and west of England, a representative of the 

 Ulmaceous family. Here we have a deciduous large-grow- 



* Euphorbia amygdaloidesflaic 4 D. 

 f Ulmus montana Plate 5 A. 



