CROSS-BEARERS AND BUTTERFLY PLANTS. 39 



you to look at. You may have some in the garden at 

 home, and you very likely know what the flower is 

 like quite well. But in a grass field, or by the road- 

 side, we are almost sure to find a little plant which 

 has flowers, smaller indeed than those of the sweet 

 pea, and different in colour, but like them in shape. 



Do you remember what compound leaves are? 

 (p 22). Look for a little plant with compound leaves, 

 like clover leaves, and bright yellow flowers. They 

 grow in little heads or clusters, on some plants from 

 three to five or six of them together on one stalk. 

 (ct. Fig. 30). As in the sweet pea, the flower 

 has five petals. The one at the top you see is the 

 largest, and spread open like a flag, and so it is 

 called the standard ; the two at the sides are smaller, 

 and are called the wings ; 



then the two lowest are Vllll I 



. . ,. , f AUV It 



joined together, except 



just at one end, and are 



like the keel or sharp ^ n 



/ ^-^/ 



ridge along the bottom w( ./ 



of a boat, so those two 

 leaves are called the keel. 

 So you see it is a flower 



with petals of SUch pe- Fig. 32. Papilionaceous flower. 



culiar and different * J - - win s s - "<*' . 

 shapes as to be called after things they are fancied to 

 be like standard, wings, and keel (Fig. 32). 



But what do you think all the petals together have 

 been fancied to be like ? Perhaps you would notice it 



