STIPULES, BRACTS, AND SCALES. IO3 



plant ; anthriscus or cow-parsley, or any other we 

 can see. Now look upon the flower stalk for a set 

 of bracts, all growing at the same level of the stalk, 

 just below the umbel. Such a ring of bracts is called 

 an "involucre"* (Figs. 35, 36, 80, 86, 137). 



Sometimes the involucre is composed of several rings 

 of bracts close together, and arranged so that the 

 bracts overlap one another, something like the slates 

 upon the roof of a house. Let us look at such an invo- 

 lucre, for we can easily find it in some common 

 composite (p. 48) plant. Yes ! here you can see it 

 very well in the dandelion, or in the thistle, or again 

 in a common daisy (Figs. 138, 37, p. 46). 



Is it too early in the season to find an acorn ? In 

 any case you know what an acorn is like very well. 

 The acorn cup is an involucre made up of scaly bracts 

 all joined together, and it is called a " cupide? In the 

 autumn you should look for the fruit of the hazel-nut 

 (Fig. IO3//), the oak (Fig. 114), the beech, the sweet 

 chestnut, and the hornbeam, and compare their cu- 

 pules. Commonly we call them "husks," but they arc 

 different forms of bracts which gradually develop, 

 forming receptacles for the fruit, and botanically are 

 called "cupules."t 



Let us now turn homeward, and, as we go, I 



* From the Latin " in" in, and " volvo" I wrap. Involucre, a 

 barber's towel which he cases about one's shoulders when he trims one. 

 " Involucrum," that which wraps or covers. 



f Cupule, from the Latin " cttpa " (cupula), a cup. 



