ARRANGEMENT OF TEXT, lxiil 
on for specific distinctions. In general, spring flowers may be said to 
blow in March, April, or May, in the south of England; summer flowers 
in June, July, or part of August; autumnal ones in the end of August, 
September, or part of October. After the middle of October, and until 
the beginning of March, there are but few besides occasional stragglers in 
flower : towards the North, the flowering season is much shorter, and par- 
ticularly the early flowers open later. 
Observations on varieties, etc., are reserved for the conclusion of the 
paragraph. The plants described as species in other ‘ British Floras,’ and 
not adopted as such in the present work, are mentioned or referred to 
either in these concluding observations or among the synonyms immediately 
under the specific name above referred to. All other species inserted in the 
above works and not included or alluded to in the present one, are omitted, 
because they are believed not to grow wild in the British Isles. 
a 
IV. ANALYTICAL KEY TO THE NATURAL ORDERS AND 
ANOMALOUS GENERA OF THE BRITISH FLORA. 
The heads of division adopted in the following Key are necessarily arti- 
ficial, being solely intended to assist the beginner in finding out the name 
of his plant, and its place in the system, like the letters of the alphabet in 
anindex. They are not classes or groups of Orders, for the same Order 
will be found repeated under different heads. At the same time, it has 
been the endeavour so to frame them as to call the student’s attention to 
some of the most prominent characters of the great natural divisions. 
I. FLOWERING PLANTS. 
Flowers compound, consisting of several florets in a common in- 
volucre, without separate calyces. Anthers united in a cylinder 
round the style . : . 2 
Flowers distinct, or if in a head, having ‘the anthers free 3 
at Ovary and fruit containing a single seed, and appearing like a seed 
under the floret : CoMPosITsm (p. 223.) 
Ovary and fruit two- celled, with several seeds . JaSIONE (p. 274.) 
Perianth double, consisting of a calyx (sometimes reduced to a 
3, scarcely prominent ring) and a corolla A, 
~ 
Perianth single(its segments all calyx-like or all petal- like) or none 85 
4 f Corolla consisting of several distinct petals. ‘ aes 
\ Corolla of one piece, the petals united, at least at the base ‘ AUS 
S Ovary free, within or above the petals i 6 
5+ Ovary inferior, adherent to the base of the calyx, and below the 
i petals : 46 
Ovaries several in the same flow er, the carpels distinct or deeply 
divided. et, 
ess. ‘y solitary (simple or compound) entire or slightly divided < 
