so long that they cannot be packed in the bud without being folded and refolded, as occurs in that familiar plant the ribwort plantain, the little florets of which-Fig. 53-are well worthy of examination.

53. Floret of common ribwort Plantain-1, corolla, within which the long filaments-2-of the stamens are folded when in bud-3.

Refer again to our primrose section-Fig. 29—or better still, go, where you can, and gather primroses or cowslips-either will do-by the hedgerows and in the fields of April, and examine them; you will find the stamens five in number, attached to the corolla. Take the bright blue blossoms of the speedwell-Fig. 50-and examine as many as you may, you will find but two stamens to each, and these also attached to the corolla. Go to the wallflower, pull off its calyx, and then its petals, as we have done-Fig. 48-but still the stamens, six in number, remain firmly attached just below the seedpod. In like manner you may serve the buttercup; its stamens also remain after both calyx and corolla have been taken away. Try the same thing with

the potentilla, the strawberry, or the wild rosealso plants of many stamens. The petals come off easily enough and leave the stamens behind them; but when you try to detach the calyx, you bring the stamens with it; for the reason that, as we see in Fig. 54, the stamens are attached to it. As our readers may imagine, these at

54. Section of calyx of a rosaceous plant, with the numerous stamens fixed upon it.

tachments of the stamens to various parts of the flower are to the botanist most valuable distinctive marks. Indeed, in the case we have cited, the different position of the stamens in the ranunculus or buttercup tribe, and in the rose tribe, draws a well-defined line of separation between two most important sections of the vegetable kingdom, the blossoms of which bear a near general resemblance. Neither is the distinction in this case, and indeed in many others, simply one of scientific import; for we find that certain families of plants, distinguished by certain characters of outward form, are also distinguished from one another by their economic uses. To refer to our examples: whilst we find the ranunculus tribe notorious for the acrid and poisonous properties of its members, we draw from the rosaceous plants some of our most delicious and wholesome fruits.

Mark then, well, when you examine a flower, how its stamens are attached. But you have more to do than this: within certain limits the number of stamens has to be counted. Indeed, if you study the Linnæan mode of classifying plants, this must

be one of your first-sought characters in their examination, for upon the number of stamens. the Linnæan classification is principally based. Some plants, like the speedwell-Fig. 50—with its two conspicuous stamens, give us but little trouble: if we take the grasses, we find them, with one exception, in Britain at least, hanging out three versatile stamens from each little floret. In the plantain Fig. 53-in the holly, in the bedstraws, &c., we count four stamens, and in many plants five. But we are anticipating our remarks on plant. classification. Let us look for another mark of distinction, and indeed of classification also, in the connexion which in some tribes exists between the stamens themselves. Gather one of the mallowsthose things you called "cheeses," in the young days, when anything edible about a plant was its most striking character in your eyes-examine this mallow blossom, and you will find the filaments of the stamens so united as to form a tube through

which the pistil passes. Take the

2 pea tribe, you will find the filaments in like manner connected. The tube, however, is either split above, as it is in the gorse-Fig. 55-or, while nine of the stamens seem to form an exclusive brotherhood, one is left solitary. As, however, this solitary member is the uppermost, we may suppose that he constitutes the exlusive, and looks down upon "the mass." Not only, however, are stamens at times united by their filaments, they may be so by their an

55. Stamens and pistil of common Gorse or Whin, the petals of the corolla being removed. The stamens 1-are united by their filaments into a tube through which passes the pistil-2.

thers likewise. If you have never observed this in the violets, look, and you will find it so now; so also is it in the composite flowers, the family of the daisy-Fig. 44-the dandelion, and the marigold. The anthers of the stamens, we remarked above, are generally divided into two. cells or pouches, which contain the pollen or flower-dust, that yellow powder which often shakes out so profusely from blossoms in full flushing. Look under the full-blown catkins of the willow in early spring, when—

"Tender leaves on tree and bush, Scarce hide the blackbird and the thrush"

nay, even before the tender leaves appear-and you will find the pollen sprinkling the ground with a golden shower. But, indeed, almost any full-blown blossom furnishes a specimen, and when

"The breath of May

Creeps whisperingly where brightest flowers have birth,” look at the bees after they have been rifling some of these flowers; their well-dusted coats tell of the scenes of their robberies. Abundant, extremely so, is this pollen dust; in some places its quantity must be enormous, for showers of it have been known to fall in localities to which it must have been carried from a distance by the winds. This pollen, this apparently formless dust, is made up of innumerable minute grains, round, oval, or at times. triangular, each one of which is instinct with life to fulfil its office. Very minute, however, are these little grains, and you will require a microscope to see them well. The mode in which anthers open to

discharge their pollen varies considerably, some affording it exit by pores, others by valves, &c.; but the most general mode of opening is by what is called the suture, or line of opening, which may be traced, by a little examination, in many anthers. An exception to the ordinary form of stamen we find in the family of the orchis. If you take an orchis flower-Fig. 56-to examine for the first time, you will have some difficulty in finding the stamens at all. Our illustration will help you. Mark the point corresponding to that marked 1 in the figure, and there you will find two little pouches, each

56. Blossom of an Orchis, consisting of a perianth composed of

six pieces, the lowest bearing a

spur-4. The pouches containing

responding to the stigma-2. The

less, these seem trifles; indeed they cannot appreciate

the pollen masses-1. A spot cor- the pleasure which the real twisted ovary or seed-vessel-3- lover of natural science supporting the flower with a bract -6-at its attachment to the common flower-stalk-7. The pollen masses magnified-5.

experiences, as

each step

leads him on to fresh

discoveries of design, ever varied in its beautiful

adaptations.