WAYSIDE WEEDS. 129 



merged into one, forming what is called tlie perianth, 

 as in the knot-grass (Fig. 80), and in many of the 

 division there is not even an attempt to develop 

 what we usually consider a flower, but as in the 

 hazel, the birch (Pig. .86), the willow, or the little 

 starwort (Fig. 82), a simple scale is all that is left to 

 represent the gay corollas and green flower-cups of 

 our well-known blossoms. By some this division of 



Fi&, 83. — Magnified view of Barren or Stameniferous Blossoms of common 

 Starwort. A ; a, leaf, partly embracing the stem ; b, stamen with one-celled 

 anther ; c'. scale which represents the perianth. B, Star-like arrangement 

 of leaves. 



flowering plants is called the Apetalous, or petal- 

 Wajiting, in contradistinction to the Monopetalous 

 and Polypetalous ; by others the families are classed 

 as the MonochlamydoEe, or those with but one floral 

 covering. It is not, however, simphcity alone which 

 we meet with in some of these flowers under notice, 

 but, as in the spurges (Fig. 83), extreme peculiarity 

 of structure. 



K 



