Part 2

And I have made the writing which tells about each flower very easy, with as few new words as possible, so I hope you will be able to read it yourself, and find out how many wonderful and beautiful things there are in the flower-world which you might not notice unless you were told what to look for.

There are four new words you must learn to understand before you begin to read this book.

The first word is CALYX, and it means a covering. When the flowers are still babies, or buds, as they are called in flowerland, they are so soft and tender that too much rain, or a cold wind or a night of frost would do them harm. So nearly every flower has been given a warm covering which is folded closely round the tiny bud to protect it. Sometimes this calyx, or covering, is all in one piece like a cup, and the bud sits safely inside. But very often it is made up of five or six or more pieces, and when this is the case, these separate pieces are called sepals.

These SEPALS are very often green, like leaves, but you may have white sepals, or yellow sepals, or blue sepals or pink sepals. You will learn all about them after you know all that is in this flower-book and are able to read a more difficult one.

The third new word you must know the meaning of, is PETALS. Nearly every flower has petals. They are the beautiful coloured leaves of the flower that are within the calyx. It is these lovely petals, pink in the rose, yellow in the buttercup, red in the poppy, and blue in the forget-me-not, that most of us mean when we talk of flowers, and it is these soft, silky petals which attract us, and not us only, but the birds and the bees and the butterflies, which all visit the gay flowers. These petals are among the most beautiful things in this wonderful world.

The fourth new word you must try to remember is STAMENS. The stamens are not very attractive, but they are very important to the flower, as without them there could be no new seeds, and if there were no new seeds we should presently have no more flowers.

The stamens are usually fine, slender threads which grow either singly, or in little bunches or in a ring within the circle of petals. Each slender thread has a fat little head at the end, a purple head, or a pink head, or a red head, or, very often, a yellow head. And this stamen head is filled with fine powder which is needed to make the new seeds grow.

These four, CALYX, SEPALS, PETALS, and STAMENS, are the only new words you will have to learn in order to understand all that is written in this little flower-book, and I hope that, when summer comes, you will try to find all the plants that I have written about here, and that you will be able to tell the names, without reading them, of every flower of which Miss Kelman has made you a picture.--Yours sincerely,

C. E. SMITH

LIST OF FLOWERS

YELLOW FLOWERS

Plate Page

I. 1. Lesser Celandine,................ 1 2. Bulbous Buttercup,............... 2 3. Meadow Buttercup,................ 3 4. Marsh Marigold,.................. 4

II. 1. Wallflower,...................... 5 2. Wild Mustard,.................... 6 3. Hedge Mustard,................... 7

III. 1. Yellow Horned Poppy,............. 8 2. Rock Rose,....................... 9 3. Opposite-leaved Golden Saxifrage, 10

IV. 1. Common Whin or Gorse,............ 11 2. Broom,........................... 12 3. Needle Whin,..................... 13

V. 1. St John's Wort,.................. 14 2. Common Avens,.................... 15 3. Tormentil,....................... 16

VI. 1. Birdsfoot Trefoil,............... 17 2. Hop Trefoil,..................... 18 3. Lady's Fingers,.................. 19 4. Meadow Vetchling,................ 20

VII. 1. Creeping Cinquefoil,............. 21 2. Silver Weed,..................... 22 3. Common Agrimony,................. 23

VIII. 1. Common Nipplewort,............... 24 2. Autumnal Hawkbit,................ 25 3. Yellow Goatsbeard,............... 26

IX. 1. Coltsfoot,....................... 27 2. Common Groundsel,................ 28 3. Common Ragwort,.................. 29

X. 1. Crosswort,....................... 30 2. Biting Stonecrop,................ 31 3. Yellow Bedstraw,................. 32 4. Mugwort,......................... 33

XI. 1. Wild Mignonette,................. 34 2. Common Dandelion,................ 35 3. Tansy,........................... 36

XII. 1. Primrose,........................ 37 2. Cowslip,......................... 38 3. Bog Asphodel,.................... 39

XIII. 1. Honeysuckle,..................... 40 2. Yellow Water Iris,............... 41 3. Daffodil,........................ 42

XIV. 3. Common Comfrey,.................. 43

WHITE FLOWERS

Plate Page