26 
spirit, you know, he wove such a robe as ours out 
of the dew drops and sunshine, to be seen by. 
“ I always wear a cloth of gold, and am distin¬ 
guished by that name. I am one of those plants 
whose duty it is to cure the sick, and so botanists 
call me Officinalis. Those whose robes are white 
and purple, are a little different from me, for if you 
will observe my green leaves carefully, you will 
see they are narrower. These are the folds of my 
mantle. My robes are called petals.” 
“ Why do you call them petals ?” said Mary. 
“ It is the flower-language we learnt in Greece. 
Petals mean spreaders. We spread our robes to 
receive the sun’s rays which rebound from them 
upon our anthers,—those three little yellow boxes 
filled with dust that hang upon the ends of my 
stamens. Our anthers are very precious, and are 
therefore called the flower of the flower, for anther 
