124 THE STOEY OF THE PLANTS. 



visits it. Of course this large crown assists 

 fertilisation, and is a mark of advance in the 

 daffodil and the petticoat narcissus. I hope 

 these few remarks will induce you to examine 

 many kinds of narcissus in detail, in order to 

 see of what parts they are compounded. 



This seems a convenient place to interpose 

 another remark I have long wanted to make, 

 namely, that the threefold flowers are also for 

 the most part distinguished by having those 

 narrow grass-like or sword-shaped leaves, with 

 parallel ribs or veins, about which I told you 

 when we were dealing with the question of 

 varieties of foliage. The fivefold flowers, on 

 the other hand, have usually net-veined leaves, 

 either feather-ribbed or finger-ribbed. And at 

 the risk of using two more horrid long words, I 

 shall venture to add that botanists usually speak 

 of the threefold group as monocotyledons, and of 

 the fivefold group as dicotyledons. I did not 

 invent those words, and I am sorry to have 

 to use them here ; but I will explain what 

 they mean when I come to deal with seeds and 

 seedlings. It is well at least to understand 

 their use in case you come across them in your 

 future reading. 



Another family of threefold flowers, closely 

 allied to the amaryllids, is that of the irises, 

 many examples of which are familiar in our 

 flower-gardens. It only differs from the ama- 

 ryllids, in fact, in having the number of stamens 

 still further reduced to three, which is always 

 a sign of advance^ because it shows that the 

 plants are so sure of fertilisation as to be able 



