xiv FAMILIAR GARDEN FLOWERS, 
the fact that it first acquired proper renown there, and being used by a cul- 
tivated people, obtained through them an honourable place in literature. 
This plant, everywhere grown for its tenacious fibres, is comparatively 
unknown in gardens, and the observer of vegetable forms who is unac- 
quainted with it may be advised to sow a few common flax seeds in the 
spring, and in due time look for an elegant tuft of vegetation crowned with 
pretty blue flowers. p. 121, 
IRIS, from iris, the rainbow. N.O., Lridacee. Linnean: 3, Tri- 
andria; 1, Monogynia,—This order consists entirely of herbs that have 
fibrous, tuberous, or bulbous roots; but the ‘‘ bulbs’? of this order are 
not formed of scales like those of lilies, but are woody, and multiply by a 
new growth at the summit, which true bulbs never do ; hence the bulb-like 
roots of these plants are called corms, The order comprehends the iris and 
crocus of the northern hemisphere. All are furnished with sword-shaped 
or sickle-shaped leaves; the flowers are hermaphrodite, regular and irregular, 
enclosed before opening in a sheath; the perianth has six divisions arranged 
in two series; there are three stamens; the fruit is a three-celled capsule. 
There are several edible plants in the order, and a few that furnish aromatic 
drugs, and all the species are highly ornamental. Though a comparatively 
unimportant order it comprises fifty-three genera and 550 species. p. 125. 
CRIMSON PETUNIA.—See under * Petunia.” p. 129. 
ASTER, from Greek aster, a star. N.O., Composite, or Asteracee. 
Linnean: 19, Syngenesia ; 2, Superflua.—The composite plants have a strong 
family likeness, and yet, owing to the breadth and fewness of the ray florets 
in the flowers of some kinds, the beginner may occasionally fail to recognise 
them. They are herbaceous plants, or small trees, with leaves opposite or in 
whorls, entire or divided. Flowers hermaphrodite or unisexual, sometimes 
in single heads or capitules, sometimes in compound umbels or corymbs. 
The ‘‘ composite’? character is revealed when we examine one of the 
capitules or stars. This is found to consist of a number of separate flowers, 
varying in structure, packed together on a common receptacle. The 
following may be accepted as a general statement of a very difficult case :— 
Every head of flowers, or florets, as they are technically named, has a 
central part, or disc, and a circumference, or ray; of these florets some 
ave regularly tubular, with their limb cut into four or five segments; others 
are slit up on one side, opened flat, and turned towards the circumference 
of the head ; the latter are named ligulate florets. When ina head of flowers 
all the florets are alike and ligulate, it belonged to the division Cichoracec, as 
in the dandelion; if the florets of the dise were tubular, and those of the 
circumference only ligulate, it was referrible to Corymbifere, as in the mari- 
gold; and when all the florets are alike tubular, both in the dise and ray, it 
belonged to Cynarocephala, provided the involucre was at the same time stiff 
and ovate, as in the thistle. The latter character was necessary in order to 
distinguish Cynarocephale from those of Corymbifere, in which the ray is not 
developed, as common groundsel. To these three divisions x fourth has in 
