SPRING FLOWERS 153 



the same spot, but spreads on all sides in a most successful fashion. 

 In spite of its grass-like appearance the Woodrush is not a true 

 Grass, and will be found to resemble in the construction of the 

 flower such plants as the Tulip and Lily rather than the 

 Grasses. 



The firm underground stem, from which the leafy shoots spring, 

 is covered with the brown and withered bases of the leaves of 

 former seasons. Fine roots also spring from it, and grow down 

 into the soil. When the end of a shoot grows on into an inflores- 

 cence, the further growth of the plant continues from lateral buds. 

 The leaves at the base of such a shoot are small and scale-like. 

 Above them come the long, narrow, grass-like foliage-leaves. 

 These have a long sheathing base which surrounds the stem, and 

 a narrow flat leaf -blade with parallel veins. Fine silky hairs are 

 conspicuous at the margin of the blade, and where the latter joins 

 the sheath. The stalk of the inflorescence has elongated inter- 

 nodes, and the leaves borne at the nodes are smaller than the 

 foliage-leaves. Still smaller leaves or bracts are present below 

 the branches of the inflorescence, while the closely crowded 

 flowers stand in the axils of scale-leaves. 



The appearance of the inflorescence differs according to the 

 stage of opening which the flowers composing it have reached. In 

 the first stage the flowers are still closed as in the bud, the brown 

 perianth leaves not having expanded. From the tip of the closed 

 perianth of each flower the style projects just far enough to allow 

 the three whitish stigmas to expand. These are of relatively large 

 size, and when looked at with a lens show a rough or feathery 

 surface. In flowers at this stage the stigma is ready to receive 

 pollen, which evidently cannot come from the same flower/since 

 this has not opened to expose the stamens. It is even unlikely 

 that the pollen will come from a flower on the same inflorescence, 

 since all the flowers are often at the same stage. If the flower be 

 watched, or if a series of inflorescences in successively later stages 

 be collected and compared, the stigmas will be found to wither 

 and turn brown before the perianth expands. When this takes 

 place the stamens are ready to open, and the flower is in the second 

 stage. 



The structure of the flower will be most readily made out from 



