foliage. The hardness of the wood makes it suitable for turnery articles, but its chief utility was in the days of archery. English Yew bows won the victories of Cressy and Poictiers; and in Switzerland the Yew is called "William Tell's tree,” because his famous bow was made of it. Keats furnishes his Endymion with such a bow:

We frequently find this tree in churchyards, for it has always been accounted a memento of death. Shakespeare alludes to this :

"My shroud of white stick all with Yew."

The foliage of the Yew is accounted very unwholesome ; animals eating it are affected as with poison. It is sometimes administered as a village medicine; the dried leaves produce but little effect, but a spoonful of the fresh twigs have been known to cause death.

The Juniper (Juniperus commúnis) is also a familiar tree on our hills; or, I should rather call it bush, for it is either prostrate, or but a very few feet high. Its catkins, or flowerclusters, resemble those of the Yew, and its berries are black. These berries are used in the distillation of gin, and a beer is made in France, called Genevrette, from them, mixed with barley. The leaves of the shrub are so stiff and pointed as to be almost prickly.

The Cedar wood of which pencils are made is the produce of an allied species of Juniper, commonly called the “Red Cedar." Frankincense is obtained from the Juniperus lycia ; the Hebrews in olden times, and the Romanists in the present day, use it in their incense. The Arabian frankincense is accounted the best.

Dr. Murray speaks much of the permanence of vegetation, and of trees in particular, as remaining for centuries as characteristics of the same district. He says: "The Palm, among the princes of the kingdom of vegetation, the Fig tree, and

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the Olive tree, still characterize the 'Land of Promise,' though Palmyra and Jericho are no more; the Cedar of Lebanon still vindicates its claim, by imprescriptible right, to the domains of its ancestry, though Tyre and her merchant princes are as though they had never been; Bashan is still celebrated for its Oaks, as in the times of the kings of Judah; the Olive still flourishes on its native soil, the acclivities of Olivet, as when it formed the chief retreat of a chosen band; the Amaryllis lutea, the 'Lily of the Field,' still decorates the fields of Palestine, as when the Prince of Life pointed to it as a pledge of His Providence; the Sycamore still springs up by the waysides, and skirts the shores of the Sea of Galilee, as in the reign of Herod Agrippa; and the Willow still weeps by Babel's stream, though Babylon 'is fallen, is fallen.'"

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CHAPTER XVI.

MONOCOTYLEDONS-HYDROCHARIDÁCEÆ-ORCHIDÁCEÆ -IRIDÁCEA-AMARYLLIDÁCEE-DIOSCORIÁCEA-LI

LIÁCEÆ MELANTHÁCEÆ-JUNCÁCEÆ.

WE

"The Lily of the Vale, of flowers the queen,
Puts on the robe she neither sewed nor spun ;
The birds on ground, or on the branches green,
Hop to and fro, and glitter in the sun.

"Now is the time for those who wisdom love,
Who love to walk in Nature's flowery road,
Along the lovely paths of spring to rove,

And follow Nature up to Nature's God."

E are now to begin the second great class of plants, the One-lobed class (Monocotyledonous). Here the seedvessel does not split, as in the members of the last class, but germinates from the end. There is a second permanent mark of distinction between the classes in the veining of the leaves, the veins being disposed in a network fashion in the Two-lobed class, and in a parallel one in the One-lobed class. A third point of distinction, and one even more valuable, because it can be examined when seeds and leaves are both absent, is in the stem. The trees of the Two-lobed class increase their wood by concentric layers; each year a new layer is added, and the whole is enveloped in the bark. These are called Exogens, because they are outside growers. The bark consists of three parts-the outside skin, the solid part, and the inner bark. The two inner parts often increase with such rapidity that the outer cracks; some trees throw off the bark from year to year. As soon as a tree-seedling begins to grow a few

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inches high, the centre of the stem becomes pith, and rays extend to the limits of the skin; then a layer is formed round the pith, and called the sapwood, and layers are continually added to this during all the growth of the tree.

Trees of the One-lobed class increase from within, and are consequently called Endogenous. These have neither pith, rays, nor concentric circles, nor any bark, properly so called, only an outer skin. The bole of an endogenous tree consists of a number of woody cells, interspersed with bundles of fibres; and as the stem lengthens, the leaves on its summit send down more woody fibre, so that the tree becomes more closely filled round the margin of the trunk, and the heartwood remains light; on this account the wood of these trees is of little value as timber (fig. 70). The outer skin is capable of

A Transverse section of the stem of an Endogenous tree.
B Longitudinal section of the stem of an Endogenous tree.

distension, so that the tree bole does increase in size to some extent, and the remains of the footstalks of the leaves help it to increase in height, while the new leaves of each spring send down fresh fibre to the trunk.

The third great class, the Lobeless, increase only by growing at the top: hence they are called Acrogenous or summitgrowers. But we will not enter upon them now. Our present business lies with the One-lobed class, with their horizon

tally-veined leaves and inward-growing stems. Unfortunately our British plants of this class are almost entirely humble herbs.

The first order in the One-lobed class is the Petaliflors. Though characterized as thus, the petals are not always present, but the parts of the flower are arranged in a circular form, and the presence of petals seems to be provided for.

The first tribe in this order is the FROGBIT order, in which there are two families, the Frogbits and the Water Soldiers. Both families have the stamens and pistils on different plants; three sepals, and three petals.

The common Frogbit (Hydrócharis morsus-rána, Plate XV., fig. 1), the one British member of the family, I found in ditches about Kenmoor, near Clevedon. The delicate white flowers, which are very showy, grow three or four together, a transparent sheath enclosing the little stems at their junction with the main one. The leaves are pale, smooth, thick, and heart-shaped.

The only time I have seen the Water Soldier was in a pond near Goostrey, in Cheshire. We had planned going to that pond for some days; but there being a bull in the field where it was, we waited till we could get the escort of a gentleman. On reaching the pond our friend insisted on getting the plant for us, and while taking it from the water he cut his hand deeply with the sharp leaves; he said afterwards that he had no idea that botanising was so dangerous a pursuit. Dangerous is certainly not too strong a word to apply to the leaves of the Water Soldier; they are like knives for sharpness, and the points along the edges make them still more cruel. The flowers grow two or three in a cluster, like the Frogbit, and the petals are large and white; the flower-stems have a sheath where they join the principal one. The Water Soldier (Stratiótes aloides) grows in Duddingston Loch, near Edinburgh, and in Clunie Loch, Perthshire. There is a great difference between the two families in one respect, for the Frogbit has only three stamens, and the Water Soldier above twelve. The leaves of the latter