70 WATSIDB WBEDS. 



way of the " utile," but in the " dulce" they are 

 pre-eminent ; for what would English hedgerows 

 be in June without their twining woodbines, and 

 what would Scottish braes be in July without their 

 own, bluebells, that every summer- straying bairn 

 fills her hands with ? How very different from the 

 honeysuckle are the latter (Fig. 47), but yet how 

 akin the parts of likeness for which we have taken 

 them together. Look at one of the flowers from 

 the bunch of elder blossoms, which is so like your 

 old fidends of the hemlock or umbelUfer tribe j its 

 one-pieced corolla springs from the top of the seed- 

 vessel, which seed-vessel (Fig. 48) albeit will be a 

 black elderberry in September, and its juice, may- 

 hap, form one drop in the cup of hot spiced wine 

 that good housewives delight in. Now, we give 

 you credit for understanding the preceding ex- 

 planations, but we can see that ever and anon you 

 are puzzling to know what thistles, and daisies, and 

 colt's-foot do here, reminded, perhaps, every now 

 and then, by the prickly remembrances of the 

 former as you grasp your flowers. 



Take any one of these last-named plants you 

 like, say the colt's-foot, which will probably greet 

 us first in early spring with its yellow-rayed blossom, 

 and let out farming secrets. However, pull the 

 flower's head to pieces, and what do you find ? Not 

 a number of distinct petals, but a numerous com- 

 pany of little flowers, or rather florets (Fig. 49).^ 



