made out excepting in very thin slices dipped in caustic potash, or some other reagent, to render them sufficiently transparent. No single cell of the group monopolises

the originating of new tissue.

You find, then, that the root avoids the light; that it is pale or nearly white; that its fibres give off, irregularly, numerous delicate thread-like branches (fibrils); that it is destitute of buds and leaves, and that the tips of the root are protected by cellular sheaths.

2. Now examine the STEM.

You observe, at once, that the stem rises directly from the ground, seeking, rather than avoiding, the light. In one kind of buttercup, growing in moist soils, there are two sorts of stem on the same plant; one a creeping stem, which has the power of giving off roots freely at its joints, and which, spreading along the ground, multiplies the plant by forming offsets, and the other an erect stem bearing flowers. It is the flower-bearing stem we are speaking of just now.

Excepting the lowest thickened portion, more or less buried in the soil, the stem is coloured green, and not being woody we may speak of it as herbaceous. It bears several foliage-leaves arranged on different sides of the stem. The lower ones spring in a tuft from its base, and have long stalks. The upper foliage-leaves are without stalks, and arranged singly on the stem, although sometimes they are so deeply divided as to look as though they were in threes.

If we examine the growing-point of a young stem under a magnifying glass, carefully dissecting away the leaves which surround it, we shall find that to the very apex it continues to give off, successively, minute lateral prominences, which are the rudiments of leaves. Both foliage and flower-leaves originate upon the stem in the same way, but they soon become different, both in their arrangement, form, texture, and colour. The stem never terminates in a cellular sheath like that which protects the tips of the root.

The branches spring from points where foliage-leaves are given off from the stem; each branch occupying the angle (called the axil of the leaf) which the leaf makes with the stem.

At the extremity of the principal stem of your fullygrown buttercup, you find a tuft of coloured leaves forming a flower. All the branches, also, end in flowers or flower-buds.

The stem, we find, ascends; is coloured green, and is herbaceous in texture; it bears foliage-leaves and ends in a flower.

3. FOLIAGE-LEAVES.-I use the term foliage-leaves at present simply in order to avoid confusion with the leaves of which flowers are composed. It is not necessary you should always call them so, but it is necessary that you thoroughly understand that, speaking generally, whatever is borne by the stem and its branches is a leaf of some kind, whether it be green, as are foliage-leaves, or coloured, as are flower-leaves.

We have already remarked that the lowest leaves have long stalks. As they seem to spring from the root they may be called radical leaves. They really spring from a portion of the stem, which is thickened and more or less buried underground, giving off root-fibres below and radical leaves from above. This portion of the stem is called the stock.

The point on the stem from which any leaf is given off is called a node; the space between two nodes is called an internode. It is owing to the non-development of the internodes of the stock that the leaves which it bears appear to be given off in a tuft.

Each radical leaf consists of stalk and blade; the stalk supporting the blade is called a petiole. The base of the petiole, observe, is more or less sheathing, and the blade is much divided into deep segments, which again are further more or less lobed. The upper leaves, obviously springing from the stem, may be described as cauline. Being destitute of petioles, they are termed sessile. The same word is used of any part of a plant to denote the absence of a stalk, whether that stalk be a petiole (which is the stalk of a foliage-leaf only) or not. All the foliageleaves have the blade spread out more or less horizontally, and they are all coloured a deep green. They may be hairy, or nearly glabrous, that is, destitute of hairs.

We find, then, the foliage-leaves to be borne by, and around, the stem; they are thin, coloured green, and

consist of petiole and blade, or of blade only; the blade being spread out horizontally. We now come to the examination of the

4. FLOWERS, and as the leaves of which these consist are smaller than the foliage-leaves, and some of them, in the buttercup, very small indeed, it will be necessary that you be very careful in your observations, making sure that you thoroughly understand every stage of your progress.

The upper part of the stem serves as a stalk to the flower. Flower-stalks are distinguished as peduncles. The peduncle of the buttercup may be either round or furrowed, according to the kind which you have gathered. Before proceeding to dissect (to separate carefully into its pieces) a flower, select one that has but just opened, and which has lost none of the parts which it possessed while still a bud; that is, before it expanded.

Observe, first, that all the coloured leaves which form the flower are apparently arranged upon the very summit

FIG. 2.-Vertical section of flower of Buttercup, showing the parts of the flower inserted upon a conical receptacle.

of the stem. The internodes of the stem which separate the upper foliage-leaves cease, or are suppressed, in the flower, so that all the parts are in close juxtaposition. This is characteristic of flowers. The top of the flowerbearing stem, from which the flower-leaves collectively spring, is called the receptacle, or floral receptacle.

5. Proceed next to note that there are, in the flower, five separate outer leaves arranged in a whorl; small, coloured yellow, and either spreading or sharply curved back, according to the kind of buttercup you are examining. These leaves are each entire—that is, without the lobes or divisions of the foliage-leaves. They fall off early, and hence may be described as deciduous. These five outer leaves of the flower are singly termed calyxleaves or Sepals; together they form the Calyx of the flower. The sepals being free, that is, separate from each other and from the other parts of the flower, the calyx is bolysepalous.*

6. Immediately inside the calyx are five rather larger, separate, nearly sessile, brightly coloured leaves. These also are arranged in a whorl, and they are singly placed opposite to the intervals between the sepals; not opposite to the sepals themselves. Like the sepals they are deciduous. Singly, they are the corolla-leaves or Petals; the five together form the Corolla of the flower. petals being free, the corolla is polypetalous; being equal in size and form, it is also regular.

The

7. In the examination of the rest of the flower much nicety is required. Having stripped off the sepals and petals singly, and laid them aside, proceed to the third series of flower-leaves.

These are very different in form and structure from both sepals and petals, though, like them, they are all free; that is, distinct from, and independent of, each other. They each consist of a lower stalklike portion, bearing an upper somewhat thickened, oblong, and grooved head. This FIG. 3. Stamen Stalk is termed the filament; the oblong of Buttercup. head which it supports, the anther; and these together constitute a staminal leaf or Stamen. The stamens of the buttercup are shorter than the petals. As they are numerous, considerably *The prefix poly- (Toλús, many) is used when applied to sepals and petals, to denote that the sepals or petals are free rather than that they are actually many in number. Usually there are not more than three, four, or five sepals or petals in a flower.

more than twice as many as petals, they are said to be polyandrous.

If the

The anthers we must examine more closely. We have already observed that there is a groove up the back (outer side), and another, less distinct, along the face (inner side). These grooves divide the anther into two lobes, right and left. anther be ripe, each of these lobes will split open near the outer edge, allowing certain fine powdery grains which it contains to be easily removed by insects or otherwise. These grains being as essential to the flower as they are characteristic of the stamen, we must carefully examine them under a microscope. Fig. 4 shows them highly magnified. We find that they are distinct globular cells with minutely granular contents. cells we call the pollen, and each cell is a pollen-grain. Remove all the stamens, noting the minute, closelypacked, and spirally-arranged scars which remain after you have picked them off. You find

the stamens, like the sepals and petals, inserted directly upon the floral receptacle. This being the case, they are technically described as hypogynous.

8. You have now left a small head, consisting of numerous distinct, but very closely packed, sessile leaves, extremely unlike either sepals, petals, or stamens. Separate one of them, and try to cut it through lengthwise.

FIG. 4.-Pollen grains of Buttercup (magnified).

These globular

Fig. 5 shows one thus treated. It is FIG. 5.-Vertical sechollow, containing a single, palecoloured body, attached to the base of the cavity. This is the rudiment of a future seed, and it is termed, in its present stage, an ovule. The hollow leaf which contains and protects the tender ovule is called a carpellary leaf or Carpel.

Examine the outside of any one of these carpels with a magnifier, and you must observe that the upper portion