Belonging as it does to the order Ranunculaceæ it is often confounded with the buttercups, owing, perhaps, to its bright yellow colour; and some people think that the bright golden appearance of butter is owing to the presence of this flower in pasture-land. But cows will not eat it at all unless obliged to do so by extreme hunger, and even then they are often injured by it. In appearance the Marsh Marigold is like a large thick buttercup, with a stout stem and very large glossy leaves. It is a beautiful flower, and by the side of a river amidst the emerald grasses it shines like a golden vase. Shakespeare undoubtedly thought of its golden cups reflected in the clear river stream when he wrote the well-known lines

"Hark! hark the lark at heaven's gate sings,

And Phoebus 'gins to rise,

His steeds to water at those springs,

On challiced flowers that lies.

In common with most acrid and poisonous plants the Marsh Marigold possesses a certain old medical reputation. Dr. Withering believes in the exhalation of some potent qualities from the flowers, for he tells us that a girl was cured of fits by the introduction of a quantity of the flowers into her bed-room, and this reputation induced some who believed it to make an infusion of the plant and administer it to children as a cure for various kinds of fits. Such remedies appear to us very dangerous however.

The Marsh Marigold is also called Water Calthrops and Meadow Rout.

THE WHITE WATER-LILY.

NYMPHE ALBA.

THIS plant belongs to another natural order or family -Nymphæaceæ, which consists chiefly of aquatic herbs with floating leaves and solitary flowers; found in all temperate and tropical parts of the world. They have usually four sepals and many petals in several rows, contracting gradually into stamens. The fruits are numerous, but are either imbedded into the receptacle, or combined together to form a single ovary with many cells. Nymphæa alba, the White Water-Lily, has bright, smooth, heart-shaped leaves, floating on the surface of the water; usually six or eight inches in diameter. The flowers are large, white, and floating, with yellow stigmas. It is one of the brightest ornaments of our still lakes and ponds throughout Europe, and is a favourite plant with all lovers of flowers. The flower of the White WaterLily is an excellent example of the law of morphology in plants. The doctrine that all the parts of a plant are modifications of the leaves, may be aptly illustrated by tracing the gradual changes which take place in the floral envelopes of this plant. Begin with the outermost whorl of sepals, and trace the leaf-like character gradually lessening until they become changed into perfect stamens, with petal-like anthers attached to them. The flower-stems are porous and succulent, but rapidly lose their moisture if removed