CHAPTER VI 
HOW TO IDENTIFY WILD FLOWERS 
I wAveE had a lovely ramble this morning, and have 
seen a lot of things I am almost bursting to tell you 
about ; indeed, I could make a big book out of the 
plants, insects, birds, and other animals that I 
noticed. But I must restrain myself, for my real 
object in going out was to get a few plants by which 
I can give you a lesson in finding out the names of 
plants you do not know. I have quite a lot of 
interesting plants in my vasculum ; I dare say you — 
know some of them already. Now, here is a plant. 
Can you tell me what it is? ‘‘ Oh, that is a small 
Dandelion !” you say. You have made a great 
mistake. There are a goodly number of flowers that 
the unskilled call Dandelions, and you have fallen 
into a common error. Compare this plant with the 
Dandelion I have here. You can see at once that 
they are very different. This plant has a rosette of 
radical leaves ; they are oblong, and have an entire 
margin. You will see their upper surface bears a 
number of long hairs, and underneath there is a 
sort of starry down. The leaves of the Dandelion 
are also radical, but they are longer than those of 
the plant we are examining. Besides, they are 
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