54 Introductory View of the 



change from blue to white, and again to resume their blue, 

 by being transplanted, and restored to their original sta- 

 tion ; and though green is usually the colour of the calyx, 

 it not unfrequently happens that a flower of gayer habits is 

 seen to assume a cloak of yellow, rose-colour, or crimson; 

 while some grave and quaker-minded plants wear a corolla 

 scarcely distinguishable, by colour, from the leaves. Observe 

 the calyx of many species of the ranunculus, confounded 

 under the familiar name — buttercup, and you will find them 

 yellow ; in some, the colour is as bright a yellow as the 

 corolla itself: the calyx and corolla of the magnificent trum- 

 pet-flower (Bign6n2« radicans) are of the same colour. 

 Fuchs/« coccinea has a deep purple corolla, within a calyx of 

 bright scarlet. The willow-herb (Epilobium), of which many 

 species are well known, has a calyx of deep crimson. Z)aphne 

 Mezereon has a bright rose-coloured calyx, with no corolla ; 

 the buckthorn, lady's mantle, pellitory of the wall, &c., have 

 the corolla and the calyx of the same green colour. There 

 are some flowers in which, one of the two being deficient, 

 botanists are themselves undecided whether the one which 

 remains be properly the calyx, or corolla; but the best rule 

 that can be given to a young botanist is, that, in general, the 

 stamens are alternate with the petals or segments of the co- 

 rolla, and opposite to the leaves or divisions of the calyx. 



The class Hexdndria is chiefly composed of what are termed 

 liliaceous plants ; by which are meant plants that, by their simi- 

 larity of structure, are nearly connected with the lily. Some 

 few of these are in the third class, Tridndria ; but the greater 

 number are Hexandrous, and many of them furnished with 

 the spatha. The great majority of the plants of this class 

 are in the order Monogynia, which contains some of the most 

 delicate and some of the most splendid flowers that our gar- 

 dens exhibit. It will be necessary to remind the young stu- 

 dent, that he has more to consider than the number of the 

 stamens, and the presence of the pistil, before he determines a 

 flower to belong to this class. The stamens are either all of 

 equal length, or each three are equal ; ii four of them exceed 

 their brethren in length, he will probably find that the corolla 

 is four-petaled, and may seek it in the fifteenth class. The 

 liliaceous plants are six-petaled, or six-cleft ; the style is tri- 

 angular, and the capsule has three cells. Of the nineteen 

 genera of this class and order, which grace the British Flora, 

 several are remarkable for their delicate beauty; the more 

 splendid and useful plants of this class are chiefly foreign. 

 Who is there that is not acquainted with the little drooping 

 pearl that blooms beneath the snow, and seems^ as if it had 



