Ql6 LETTER XVIII. 



of Monocotyledonous plants : among which you will 

 find that many of the commonest and most useful 

 tribes are arranged. You will scarcely, however, 

 have suspected that Lilies, and Palms, and Bananas, 

 with Hyacinths, Squills, Daffodils, and Orchises, were 

 associated with Grasses, Rushes, and Sedges ; the 

 natural affinity of all these is what we have now^ to 

 study. In order to entice my young friends onwards, 

 and to prevent their getting w^eary of their pursuit at 

 a time when I am most anxious that their attention 

 should be fixed, I shall begin with a natural order, 

 the species of which are so generally admired, that I 

 am sure they will wish to understand it botanically. 



The Daffodil, called by Botanists Narcissus, repre- 

 sents a group of plants, having fine gay flowers, 

 and long narrow strap-shaped leaves arising from 

 bulbs which gi'ow under ground. It is called in Eng- 

 lish the Narcissus tribe. We will not, however, take 

 the Daffodil to illustrate it, for reasons that I shall 

 mention by and bye. A beautiful Chilian plant, 

 called the sharp-leaved Alstromeria, of which I send 

 you a drawing (Plate XVIII. 1.), and which is now 

 not very uncommon in gardens, will shew you the 

 general structure of this tribe in a more satisfactory 

 manner. 



Its leaves are of a firm and rather fleshy texture, 

 gradually tapering to the point, and are filled with sim- 

 ple veins. It has an inferior ovary {fig. 1. a.) with 

 three angles, three cells, and many seeds in each 

 cell. From the upper end of the ovary rises a richly 

 coloured reddish-orange calyx of three sepals, inside 



