dwellers in the pools, and send them splashing and diving their different ways. I hope he will not forget to bring you back one of our clubs, a tall stem, long, narrow, tapering leaves, and bearing the large round mace, somewhat of the size and shape of a candle, with a wick as long as itself. Early in the season the club part, which consists in reality of the fertile flowers, is of a greenish brown, while the upper slenderer portion, which I called the wick, is covered with long anthers growing quite close together. By August these have scattered their pollen and withered away, leaving only their stalk, looking broken and rough, but making a good finish to the club, which has become of a very deep dark brown colour and soft plush-like texture. By and by all the little downy seeds of which it consists will break out and fly away, to sow the reed-maces of next year. They are sometimes called bulrushes, but they are really cats'-tails, or reed-maces. The bur reeds are to be found by banks of rivers, in places much like the haunts of the bulrush. They have branching stems, bearing a number of little balls, some all yellow, consisting of stamens, some all brown or all green, the pistils with white stigmas, the leaves lance-shaped, and the whole plant very handsome, often with a large black fat slug enjoying himself on the back of a leaf. The next plant is one that can hardly find a likeness anywhere, the arum-that is to say, better known to most of my friends as lords and ladies. Do you not like creeping along the hedge bank, poking into the clusters of heart-shaped, black-spotted, handsome, shining leaves, for the tall, green, rolled-up spike, which your busy fingers quickly undo, while tongues are busy guessing whether it will disclose a red-faced lord, with his slender neck encircled by a red and white collar of gems, or a delicate white lady! Or here and there, if late enough, you find what I used to call my lord or my lady in a coach—the sheath open, and making a beautiful green bower over its inhabitant, looking, as I now think, like the drapery we sometimes see in pictures, floating, and swelled by the wind, over a sea-nymph. My lord or my lady is in truth the stem, the collar of gems is the blossom; the stamens, as usual, grow above, in the upper row of beads; the fertile flowers are beneath, and in time give place to scarlet berries, which look very bright in the autumn. I believe they are poisonous; but the root, when dried, cleaned, and ground, becomes a soft, white flour, which is known by the name of arrow-root, or, as it ought to be called, arum-root. The most esteemed arrow-root is brought from the West Indies, but our own lords and ladies would, I believe, make it just as good. There is another kind sometimes grown in greenhouses, where the sheath is of the purest white, and the lord bright yellow; and in Greece my lord goes into mourning, and appears quite black, most beautiful, but with a horrible scent. And one word of the funny duckweed, a green veil over the black water of the pond, with no roots at all, only one little fibre hanging down below the leaf, to drink the water; and as for flower it has none, but it keeps its two stamens and one pistil in its pocket. Yes, really in a little pocket on one side of the leaf, where, if you look very sharp, you may just see the two tiny anthers peeping out, as the eyes of the young kangaroos do out of their mother's pouch. dwellers in the pools, and send them splashing and diving their different ways. I hope he will not forget to bring you back one of our clubs, a tall stem, long, narrow, tapering leaves, and bearing the large round mace, somewhat of the size and shape of a candle, with a wick as long as itself. Early in the season the club part, which consists in reality of the fertile flowers, is of a greenish brown, while the upper slenderer portion, which I called the wick, is covered with long anthers growing quite close together. By August these have scattered their pollen and withered away, leaving only their stalk, looking broken and rough, but making a good finish to the club, which has become of a very deep dark brown colour and soft plush-like texture. By and by all the little downy seeds of which it consists will break out and fly away, to sow the reed-maces of next year. They are sometimes called bulrushes, but they are really cats'-tails, or reed-maces. The bur reeds are to be found by banks of rivers, in places much like the haunts of the bulrush. They have branching stems, bearing a number of little balls, some all yellow, consisting of stamens, some all brown or all green, the pistils with white stigmas, the leaves lance-shaped, and the whole plant very handsome, often with a large black fat slug enjoying himself on the back of a leaf. The next plant is one that can hardly find a likeness anywhere, the arum—that is to say, better known to most of my friends as lords and ladies. Do you not like creeping along the hedge bank, poking into the clusters of heart-shaped, black-spotted, handsome, shining leaves, for the tall, green, rolled-up spike, which your busy fingers quickly undo, while tongues are busy guessing whether it will disclose a red-faced lord, with his slender neck encircled by a red and white collar of gems, or a delicate white lady! Or here and there, if late enough, you find what I used to call my lord or my lady in a coach—the sheath open, and making a beautiful green bower over its inhabitant, looking, as I now think, like the drapery we sometimes see in pictures, floating, and swelled by the wind, over a sea-nymph. My lord or my lady is in truth the stem, the collar of gems is the blossom; the stamens, as usual, grow above, in the upper row of beads; the fertile flowers are beneath, and in time give place to scarlet berries, which look very bright in the autumn. I believe they are poisonous; but the root, when dried, cleaned, and ground, becomes a soft, white flour, which is known by the name of arrow-root, or, as it ought to be called, arum-root. The most esteemed arrow-root is brought from the West Indies, but our own lords and ladies would, I believe, make it just as good. There is another kind sometimes grown in greenhouses, where the sheath is of the purest white, and the lord bright yellow; and in Greece my lord goes into mourning, and appears quite black, most beautiful, but with a horrible scent. And one word of the funny duckweed, a green veil over the black water of the pond, with no roots at all, only one little fibre hanging down below the leaf, to drink the water; and as for flower it has none, but it keeps its two stamens and one pistil in its pocket. Yes, really in a little pocket on one side of the leaf, where, if you look very sharp, you may just see the two tiny anthers peeping out, as the eyes of the young kangaroos do out of their mother's pouch. CHAPTER XLI LILIES OF THE FIELD Ir is pleasant to have to come at last to considering the Lilies of the Field, how they grow in their beauty, and the glory of their raiment. Most fair, and pure and regal of all, stands the great white lily, "The Lily flower, With blessed Mary seen," which in pictures of the Annunciation is always drawn in the hand of the angel. There is nothing more purely white than the petals of this lily, not fragile and fading at a touch, like that other delicate thing, the convolvulus, but firm and steadfast, retaining their whiteness unsullied to the last. How exquisitely do the grand, queen-like flowers stand out from the tall stem, feathered upwards with narrow leaflets, and crowned with half-opened flowers and tapering buds. Very handsome, too, are the six long stamens, bearing their caskets of gold dust, as if waiting on the graceful bending pistil in the midst, all shut within those superb white petals. It is truly the queen of our gardens, and when we know that its native home is the Holy Land, we may please ourselves with thinking that it may have been the very flower of which our blessed Lord |