ILLUSTRATIONS. 119 



Another Dictyogen is found in the Herb-Paris,* which be- 

 longs to the Trilliaceous family, though this is by some bota- 

 uists regarded as a section only of the Liliaceous Order. It 

 is a dwarf herb with a creeping rootstock, producing a simple 

 erect stem, six to nine inches or rarely somewhat more in 

 height, furnished with a few scales at the base, but otherwise 

 naked to the top, where grows a whorl of broadly ovate or 

 obovate leaves, two to three inches long, strongly marked with 

 a few longitudinal ribs, and netted between them with finely 

 reticulated veins. In the centre of this guard of leaves stands 

 a single erect flower on a stalk of moderate length, and con- 

 sisting of a perianth of eight segments, of a yellowish-green 

 colour, the outer series narrow-lanceolate and much broader 

 than the inner ones, which are quite linear ; within this eight 

 erect stamens, which are awl-shaped, with the anther-cells 

 affixed one on each side near the middle. The ovary is supe- 

 rior, four-celled, with four styles, and becomes a succulent 

 bluish-black berry. The name Paris is said to come from par, 

 paris, equal, in allusion to the regularity of numbers occurring 

 in the parts four leaves, four sepaline arid four petaline divi- 

 sions, twice four stamens, four styles, and a four-celled ovary, 

 which latter becomes a lurid-purple berry, whence rustics 

 give the plant the name of One-berry, or True-Love. 



We must now select a few illustrations from the different 

 families of Monocotyledons, commencing with those in which 

 the sexes are separated. 



Of this group, the Common Frog-bit, f itself the type of 

 the Hydrocharidaceous family, furnishes an illustration. This 

 is a pretty water plant, with rather slender stems, producing 

 here and there tufts of floating leaves and submerged roots. 



* Paris quadrifolia Plate 20 A. 



f Hydrockaris Morsus-rancB PJate 20 B. 



