OR, PLAIN TEACHING. 



319 



We are of opinion that a much more natural 

 mode of understanding reseda is to consider it 

 as having compound flowers, taking the calyx 

 of anthers for an involucrurn, their petals for 

 neutral florets, and their nectary for the calyx 

 of a fertile floret in the middle," &c, &c. 



When the structure of a sim- 

 ple flower thus perplexes the 

 learned, we may imagine how 

 many beautiful enigmas in the 

 book of Nature are yet unsolved, 

 and how much there is to inte- 

 rest the mind of the enquiring 

 naturalist. 



Mignonette is derived from the 

 French word mignon, meaning a 

 darling, and is aptly applied to 

 this interesting plant. The tree 

 mignonette is a shrubby variety ; it 

 is rather more odorous than the 

 common plant. The mignonette 

 is a native of Egypt, from which 

 it became a wanderer in the 

 latter part of the eighteenth 

 century, and soon found a home 

 in many lands. 



The last of the floral beauties 

 which we can find space to 



20a 



877. 



enumerate, is the crocus, 20a, 



one of those beautiful gems 

 that — 



" Under foot with violets, 

 And hyacinths, rich in-laid, 

 Broider the ground, more coloured than with 



stone 



Of costliest emblem." 



In Ovid's " Metamorphoses," 

 Crocus, a youth, is fabled to have 

 been changed into a flower : 

 from this the flower takes its 

 name. There are several species 

 of this genus ; and the brilliancy 

 of their flowers — but, above all, 

 the early period at which they 

 blow — renders them favourites 

 in the flower-garden. 



When these plants are in flower, the germen, 

 or seed vessel, is still under ground, almost 

 close to the bulb ; and it is not until some 

 weeks after the decay of the flower, that it 

 emerges on a white peduncle, and ripens its 

 seeds above the ground. This peculiarity is 

 very conspicuous in the naked autumnal crocus, 

 which flowers without leaves in the autumn, 

 and throws up its germen the following spring, 

 in a similar way as already described with the 

 meadow saffron, 829. 



We have already told of the 

 orchis, which travels half-an-inch 

 sideways every year, 866. It is 

 otherwise with the crocus, for as 

 the bulbs are renewed every 

 year, and the new bulb is formed 

 on the top of the old one, they 

 will in a short time rise to the 

 surface ; while the tulip, and the 

 bulbous iris, whose new bulbs are 

 formed under the old ones, soon 

 sink the plants, unless growing 

 over a hard subsoil. 



It is supposed that the native 

 climate of the crocus is Asiatic, 

 though several species are natu- 

 ralized in Europe, and three are 

 found wild in England — the 

 spring crocus, the saffron, and the 

 autumnal naked crocus. 



Many parts of the world have contributed to 

 the enrichment of our flora. North America, 

 where the Indian chases the buffalo, 2G2, and 

 where the prairies occasionally take fire, 263, 



