240 LETTER XX. 



those plants belong. Colchicum itself is very like a 

 Crocus in flower, but its superior ovary prevents its 

 being confounded with the tribe in which the Crocus 

 is included. The species of Melanthium and Helo- 

 nias are so similar in appearance to many of the 

 Asphodel tribe, that they would no doubt be referred 

 to the latter by a young Botanist. They, however, 

 Meadow Saffron, and all the rest of the Colchicum 

 tribe, may be recognised at once by three marks ; in 

 the first place, they have no bulbs, but in their stead 

 a solid knob or subterranean stem ; secondly, their 

 anthers are turned away from the stigma, splitting, 

 and emitting their pollen on the side next the petals ; 

 and lastly, the three carpels out of which the three- 

 celled ovary is constructed, are separated at their 

 points, so that there are always three styles instead 

 of one style. These signs are what you must trust 

 to in your determination of the Colchicum tribe ; 

 they may appear slight, and you may wonder why 

 such trifling' distinctions should serve to distino^uish 

 poisonous from wholesome orders ; but with consi- 

 derations of the causes of such a fact, we have no 

 concern ; all that it imports us to know is, that 

 Providence has distinguished them by such minute 

 marks, and has thus provided man with safe and 

 unerring guides, if he will but learn how to follow 

 them. 



Between many other tribes of Monocotyledonous 

 plants the distinctions are no stronger than those we 

 have already examined, a proof of which I am now 

 about to give you. 



