104 SUMMER FLOWERS. 



We now come to a group of perigynous Monopetals in 

 which the corolla is nearly or quite regular, and is moreover 

 attached beneath the ovary. It is the perigynous condition 

 of the flowers, the corolla bearing the stamens, which consti- 

 tutes the chief technical distinction between these and the hy- 

 pogynous-flowered Heaths previously described. 



Of these, the Common Privet,* a member of the Oleaceous 

 or Olive family, though by some referred to the Jasmines, is 

 an example. This well-known shrub, employed in gardens 

 in making hedges, and as an undergrowth in shrubberies, is 

 found wild in hedgerows and thickets in the southern parts of 

 England. It is a subevergreen shrub, of six or eight feet high, 

 with long slender branches, which bear opposite lance-shaped 

 leaves, and are terminated by short compact panicles of flowers, 

 consisting of a small four-toothed calyx, a four-lobed short- 

 tubed corolla, and a pair of short stamens. The flowers are 

 succeeded by blackish globular berries, which are two-celled, 

 with one or two seeds in each cell. The Ash is a somewhat 

 anomalous member of the same family, wanting both calyx 

 and corolla in the flowers of our native species, but yielding 

 in some exotic kinds flowers which have a four-lobed calyx 

 and corolla. The Lilac is another well-known cultivated plant 

 of the same group. 



The Gentianaceous family, already referred to, is another of 

 these perigynous Orders, with the stamens growing directly on 

 the corolla. Of this family we have another illustration in 

 an aquatic plant found in ponds and still waters in many ha- 

 bitats, known under the name of Nymphsea-like Villarsia,f 

 or sometimes under that of Limnanthemum nymphaoides, the 

 Common Limnanth. This is a perennial plant, with long 

 slender stems, which creep and root at the base, and becoming 



* LigustruMi vulgare Plate 15 D. 

 f Villcvrsia nymphceoides Plato 16 A. 



