The Origin of Wheat, 143 



cups, with two rows of three stamens outside them, 

 and then a single row of three petals, followed by the 

 calyx or inclosing cup of three green pieces. Its 

 close ally the water-plantain, however, shows signs of 

 some advance towards the typical lily form in the 

 arrangement of its ovaries in a single ring, often 

 loosely divisible into three sets. And in the pretty 

 pink flowering rush (not of course a rush at all in the 

 scientific sense) the advance is still more marked in 

 that the number of ovaries is reduced to six, that is 

 to say, two whorls of three each, accompanied by nine 

 stamens, similarly divisible into three rows. In all 

 these very early forms (as in their analogues the 

 buttercups) the main point to notice is this, that there 

 is as yet no regular definiteness in the numerical 

 relations of the parts. They tend to run, it is true, 

 in rows of three ; but often these rows are so numerous 

 and so confused that nature loses count, so to speak, 

 and it is only in their higher and more developed 

 members that we begin to arrive at any distinct sym- 

 metry, such as that of the flowering rush. Even here, 

 the symmetry is far from being so perfect as in the 

 later lilies. There are, however, a few very special 

 members of the alisma family in which the approach 

 to the true lilies is even greater. These are well 

 represented in England by our own common arrow- 



