The Field Rose 



which, anglicised with generous freedom for the 

 benefit of those whose Latin is rusty, is : 



Five brothers take their stand, 

 Born to the same command ; 

 Two darkly bearded frown, 

 Two without beards are known. 

 And one sustains with equal pride 

 His sad appendage on one side. 



Turn the flower over and catch the allusions ; the 



little diagram, too, at the head of the chapter makes 



it plain. The five brothers are the five sepals aU in 



a ring " of equal standing " ; two have curious 



appendages — the " beards " — on both of their edges ; 



two have no such appendages, their edges being 



quite simple ; and one has an appendage on one 



side only. These pecuUarities, though pointed out 



long ago by the monks, seem to have been left as 



unexplained facts. Lord Avebury to-day carries the 



matter a stage farther, pointing out that these are 



referable to the arrangement of the sepals in the 



flower bud, where in the general folding they overlap 



one another to some extent. Two have both edges 



79 



