100 THE STORY OF THE PLANTS. 



fruit and seed, which we must examine at length 

 in a later chapter, I will now proceed briefly to 

 describe a few of these variations in the butter- 

 cup family. 



The true buttercups themselves are dis- 

 tinguished from all other members of the group 

 by having a tiny scale over the nectary or honey- 

 gland at the base of the petal, or at least by 

 having the nectary itself as a visible pit or small 

 depression. Almost all of them are yellow, 

 though 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 wiiite, such 

 as our own water-crowfoot, and the alpine 

 buttercup 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, descen- 

 dants of the same primitive five-petalled an- 

 cestor, and regarded as members of the butter- 

 cup order. In these we can trace some curious 



