The Origin of Wluat. 



'47 



flowers, only to be distinguished from the higher 

 alismas by their united ovaries : for though both 

 calyx and petals are here brightly coloured, that is 

 also the case in the flowering rushes, and in many 

 others of the alisma group. 

 On the other hand, though 

 it may be said generally of 

 the lilies that their calyx and 

 petals are coloured alike — 

 sometimes so much so as to 

 be practically indistinguish- 

 able — yet there are many 

 kinds which still retain the 

 greenish calyx - pieces, and 

 that even in the more de- 

 veloped genera. But most of 

 the lilies are far handsomer 

 than gagea and its allies : even 

 in England itself we have such very conspicuous and 

 attractive flowers as the purple fritillaries, which ev^ery 

 Oxford man has gathered by handfuls in the spong)^ 

 meadows about Iffley lock, with their dark spotted 

 petals converging into a bell, and the nectaries at the 

 base producing each a large drop of luscious honey. 

 Some, like our wild hyacinths, have assumed a 

 tubular shape under stress of insect selection, the 



Fig. 34- — Gagea lutea. 



