68 I,ETTER IV. 



savage woad-stained Britons, were not more different 

 from the well-dressed ladies of the present day, than is 

 the Heartsease from its wild state, since it has attracted 

 the notice of the gardener. Those children of the 

 wild Pansy, which you see in the borders of the flower- 

 garden, have intermarried with strangers fi'om other 

 climates, and especially with one from the Altaic 

 mountains (Viola altaica), where the race is finer and 

 more vigorous than beneath our northern sky. 



Before I close this letter let me survey the ground 

 we have passed over. Eight distinct Natural Orders 

 have been examined, all of which are so very easily 

 known from each other, that it is almost superfluous 

 to repeat their characters ; yet as there is no more 

 certain method of fixing these matters in the memory 

 than by recapitulation from time to time, I must not 

 only do so, but beg of you to endeavour to get the 

 distinctive characters clearly understood and remem- 

 bered by our little students. 



Let me now vary the mode of distinguishing them, 

 and put their characters before you in a new^ form. 



Of the eight orders, three have an inferior ovary, 

 and five have a superior ovary ; we will take this very 

 conspicuous character, as a preliminary mode of 

 distinction ; for thus we shall simplify the other dif- 

 ferences. Then, of the three which have the inferior 

 ovarv, the Evening Primrose tribe has its parts of 

 fructification in fours, the Umbelliferous tribe bears 

 flowers in umbels, and the M\Ttle tribe has a great 

 manv stamens and aromatic dotted leaves. On the 



