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Saxifrage: Ranunculaceoe

DOUBLE BUTTERCUP illustrates the vagaries of the Ranunculaceoe, and suggests that certain of them have long been under the influence of man, who may be said in the present day to care but little about them. The study of the structure of a buttercup flower, whether single or double, but single more especially, is a proper first step to the acquisition of the structure of flowers in general. This is pointed out in the synopsis to the First Series, where the characters of the order are given.

GRAPE HYACINTH differs from common hyacinth in trivial features only. The name muscari is derived from moschos, musk, in allusion to the odour the flowers emit. The term "grave" is appropriate to the appearance of the flowers, for they might often be mistaken for berries, owing to the exceeding shallowness of the lobes of the perianth. The essential characters are the same as in other liliaceous plants.

CAMPION may be called the camp flower, and such in truth it is. Search the shelving sides of any ancient earthwork, or the banks thrown up by the hedger and ditcher, and you will find campions of one kind or another. Even the common chickweed, which thrives no-where so well as on the banks that enclose cultivated fields, may be called a campion, and is of the same family as the rest, the Caryophyllacoe, in which we find the pinks and carnations, the spergulas, gypsophilas, and cerastiums. The characters of the order have been given; it remains here only to say that in double flowers the true characters are only in part represented.

SNOWY CROWFOOT is a ranunculus all over, and agrees, without any exception, with the essential features of the Ranunculaceoe, which have been made note of in a former synopsis.

SIEBOLD'S PRIMROSE differs from the typical primrose in some important particulars, and comes nearest to Primula cortusoides. The characters of the primulaceous order have been explained at length.

ALPINE WALLFLOWER illustrates in a very pleasing manner the characteristics of the cruciferous or brassicaceous family of plants, the main features of which are described in the synopsis to the First Series.

NARCISSUS, from the youth whose hapless fate is sung by Ovid, but more remotely perhaps from some property of the plant, as it is peculiarly obnoxious to cattle. N.O., Amaryllidaceoe. LINNAEAN: 6, Hexandria; 1, Monogynia.

DODECATHEON, an ancient name of a plant, the application of which in this case is by no means obvious. N.O., Primulaceoe. LINNAEAN: 5, Pentandria; 1, Monogynia.

ERICA, from erico, to break, the wood being peculiarly brittle. N.O., Ericaceoe.--The heatherworts are a distinct group of plants having a few striking characters, though varying so much that it would be an advantage were they more definitely separated according to their several minor affinities. The major affinities comprise leaves entire and without stipules, flowers usually regular but sometimes irregular, calyx with four or five divisions, corolla with four or five lobes, stamens eight or ten. The principal groups are severally represented by the arbutus, andromeda, erica, rhododendron, and ledum. Many of the members of the order produce berries that are eaten by birds, and a few of them supply tannin and aromatic essences, but generally speaking they do not rank high in respect of utility.