LIPPED PLANTS AND UMBEL-BEARERS. 43 



order of lipped plants as we go along. Though you 

 may not know their names, you will, I think, be able 

 to tell which they are. (Figs. 33, 34.) 



There are plants, indeed, with two-lipped flowers 

 which do not belong to this two-lipped order ; but 

 either their stems are not square, or their leaves are 

 not opposite, or their fruit is not of four nuts. 



If you remember the dead nettle and its four special 

 marks as to stem, and leaves, and corolla, and fruit, 

 you will not go wrong. You will always be able 

 to tell a plant which belongs to the natural order ot 

 the lipped plants. 



I must now help you to know the plants which 

 belong to another natural order the last which I shall 

 tell you about at present. 



Have you ever noticed the inside of an open 

 umbrella ? You can see several straight rods. They 

 go from the little metal ring which is round the stick, 

 and support the curved rods upon which is stretched 

 the covering of the umbrella. 



So in some plants, flower stalks branch off from 

 one point like those straight rods do from the stick 

 of an open umbrella. These flower stalks are not 

 always equal in length, but generally nearly so ; and 

 so is formed a head of flowers, which is both round 

 and flat, or nearly so. Such an arrangement is called 

 a Simple Umbel. But from each of these flower stalks 

 others often branch off again in the same way, and so 

 is formed a Compound Umbel. (Figs. 35, 36.) 



