122 THE VEGETABLE WORLD. 
other, a petal often being found surmounted with half an anther. 
The seeds are numerous, and imbedded in a spongy substance. 
This plant has by some botanists been placed in the genus Euryale, 
whilst Lindley thinks it is nearer Vymphea, from which it differs 
in the sepals and petals being distinct, the papilla of the stigma 
being prolonged into a horn, and the changing colour of its petals. 
This splendid plant has now been successfully cultivated in many 
of the hot-houses of this country. Beautiful specimens are to be 
seen in the Royal Gardens at Kew, and at the Crystal Palace, 
Sydenham, at Chatsworth, Sion House, and elsewhere. 
The dimensions of flowers are by no means in proportion to 
the plant which produces them. The flowers of the greater part of 
our forest trees are very inconspicuous, and little valued except by 
the botanist, being generally so small as to escape the ordinary 
observer ; to study some of them, indeed, a lens must be employed. 
On the other hand, smaller plants often produce magnificent 
flowers; witness the daisy and other floral ornaments which 
decorate our meadows, woods, and gardens, dazzling us by the 
elegance of their forms, and brilliancy of their colours. 
It is on the corolla especially that Nature has expended all the 
riches of her inexhaustible palette. The corolla is also peculiarly 
the seat of the sweetest perfumes of the vegetable world. 
Plants with sweet-smelling flowers are more common in dry 
than in moist countries. On the burnt-up and naked hills of 
Southern France, the Thyme, Sage, and Lavender perfume the air 
with their aromatic scents ; whilst the moist plains of N ormandy 
exhale no vegetable aroma. 
Before a flower blows, the different parts constituting it are 
brought closely together and compressed one against the other; 
they then form a flower-bud. The buds of all annual plants—that 
is, plants germinating, growing, flowering, and dying, all in a 
same year—continue to develop themselves up to the time of ther 
full bloom. The flower-buds of certain ligneous plants, as the Lime- 
tree, also act in the same way. But there are other plants, 28 : 
Almond-tree, the Plum-tree, the Pear-tree, &c., in which the 
flower-buds appear during the summer, and increase in size UP of 
the time of autumn. They remain stationary during winter, 
