86 NATURE STUDIES. 



so forth ; while tlie typical flower of the second class 

 has only three of each. In the course of time, how- 

 ever,, this original difference has become greatly 

 masked ; for many flowers of the first kind have lost 

 one or two of their petals or stamens,, by coalescence 

 or otherwise ; while many flowers of the second class 

 have doubled their numbers in one part or another. 

 Nevertheless, in most cases, we can even now trace, 

 in some way or other, the steps which connect the 

 existing form with its primitive ancestor; and it is 

 still true that the two types are broadly marked off 

 from one another, as the five-rayed and the three- 

 rayed forms respectively. 



Now, the daffodil is a very advanced and highly- 

 modified development of the three-rayed type. The 

 artificial family to which it belongs in the present 

 somewhat irrational arrangement of flowers is that of 

 the amaryllis kind ; but we shall understand it better 

 if we look first at its near neighbours of another 

 family, the iris and crocus group. These plants in 

 some of their modifications, such as the common 

 yellow flag, are very simply three-fold in their 

 ground-plan. There are three seed-cells to the pistil 

 in the centre ; then there are three stamens outside 

 them ; next, there are three petals ; and, last of all, 

 there are three large spreading sepals in the outermost 

 whorl. But in the crocus, the three petals and three 

 sepals are indistinguishable, and have coalesced into 

 a single tube, so that the flower seems to have a 

 united corolla of six lobes. Now, in the amaryllis 



