158- 



WATSIDE WEEDS. 



blossom, which, however pretty in itself, has no 

 claims to brilliant tinting. The lily of the valley — 

 surely we need not try to describe the sweetest of 

 woodland plants — ^has its sis deep cuttings in its 

 pure white bell blossoms, and the crocus, you will 

 find, keeps up the family characters. Again, in the 

 jonquil or narcissus we have the marked distinction 

 between the internal and external perianth. The 

 bright yellow, large, and handsome blossoms of the 

 common iris or water-flag might well claim their place 

 with any flowers, however gay, but they may also 



m 



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FlQ, 97. — Essential reprodactive organs 

 of Tulip : 1, stamens ; 3, pistil. 



FlQ.£ 



-Pistil of Tulip with tbree- 

 lobed stigma. 



claim to be really wayside plants, so common are they 

 by river and pond side in the bonny month of June; 

 they well carry out the temate characters of the 

 petaloid division of the monocotyledons. But this 

 we have had so well exemplified in the members of 

 this class, in the snowdrop, tulip, crocus, etc., already 

 adverted to, that we might have rested content with 

 merely indicating the iris as a further example, had 

 it not more to show us. You count the sis divisions 



