Geo. (Returning). I know now—they are turnips.
Tut. I thought you could make it out when you came near them. These turnips are left to seed, which is the reason why you see them run to flower. Commonly they are pulled up sooner.
Harry. I should not have thought a turnip had so sweet a flower.
Geo. I think I have smelt others like them. Pray, sir, what class of plants do they belong to?
Tut. To a very numerous one, with which it is worth your while to get acquainted. Let us sit down and examine them. The petal, you observe, consists of four flat leaves set opposite to each other, or crosswise. From this circumstance the flowers have been called cruciform. As most plants with flowers of this kind bear their seeds in pods, they have likewise been called the siliquose plants, siliqua being the Latin for a pod.
Geo. But the papilionaceous flowers bear pods, too.
Tut. True; and therefore the name is not a good one. Now pull off the petals one by one. You see they are fastened by long claws within the flower cup. Now count the chives.
Har. There are six.
Geo. But they are not all of the same length—two are much shorter than the rest.
Tut. Well observed. It is from this that Linnæus has formed a particular class for the whole tribe, which he calls tetradynamia, a word implying four powers, or the power of four, as if the four longer chives were more perfect and efficacious than the two shorter; which, however, we do not know to be the case. This superior length of four chives is conspicuous in most plants of this tribe, but not in all. They have, however, other resemblances which are sufficient to constitute them a natural family; and accordingly all botanists have made them such.