OR, PLAIN TEACHING. 



305 



America, others from Switzer- 

 land, Siberia, the Caucasus, and 

 Nepal. The flowers are either 

 rich in the decided colours of 

 scarlet and purple ; or singularly 

 delicate in the gradations from 



841. 



pink to white. The leaves are 

 well worthy of observation, some 

 being leprous, or scaly under- 

 neath ; others rusty, with down 

 beneath ; others silvery, &e. The 

 flowers are borne in umbels^ or 

 corymbs, and are frequently fun- 

 nel-shaped and reflexed, with 

 prominent stamens. 



The pretty little familiar flower, 

 London-pride, 14, exhibits a good 

 illustration of a 

 panicled stem. 

 It belongs to the 

 saxifrage group, 

 a name which 

 means to break the 

 stone, applied to 

 them on account 

 of supposed me- 

 dicinal proper- 

 ties. These 

 plants are chiefly 

 Alpine, and are 

 of difficult culti- 

 vation, not on 8 42. 



account of cold so much as of 

 humid mild weather during the 

 winter. 



Carnations, 15, have long been 

 established as garden beauties ; 

 and the favourite flower, the 

 sweet- William, belongs to the same 

 botanical group, dianthus, which 

 means the flower of God, or a 

 divine flower. Carnations are 

 divided into three classes : flakes, 

 which are two-coloured, with 

 large stripes ; bizarres, which are 

 variegated in irregular spots, 

 stripes, and zones of colour ; and 

 picotees, pricked or spotted ; these 

 names meaning the peculiarities 

 of the respective classes. In 

 these flowers may be seen good 



examples of the smooth calyx, of 

 clawed petals (ihe stem of a petal 

 inserted in the calyx, being termed 

 the claw) ; and of flowers solitary, 

 panicled, corymbose, &c. Picotees 

 are rather smaller flowers than 

 carnations, and are distinguished 

 by the serrated margins of their 

 petals. 



Roses, 16, named from rlws, 

 signifying red, have been favou- 



