This is one of the first flowers you will see in springtime. It covers the ground in patches in every wood, and you will find it too under the hedges and on banks by the roadside. The flower has eight long narrow petals, which are much narrower and more pointed than those of the Buttercup. When the Celandine is still in bud the outside of these petals is beautifully streaked with purple. But when the flower opens in the sunshine, the petals are a bright yellow colour, and are as glossy as if they were wet. In the centre of the flower there is a ring of yellow stamens with a cluster of green seed-vessels amongst them. Behind the coloured petals are three narrow pointed sepals. These protect the flower when it is in bud. The green leaves of the Celandine are dark and glossy, with wavy edges, and each leaf has a stalk of its own. If you look carefully at one of these leaves you will see that the stalk is flattened at the foot. This helps it to clasp the main stem more easily. The root is divided into five or six hard little brown fingers. These brown fingers are called tubers, and each tuber, if planted separately, will produce a new plant. 2. BULBOUS BUTTERCUP In spring the Bulbous Buttercup is found everywhere, filling the meadows with its sunshiny flowers. Each flower has five glossy yellow petals which do not lie flat open as in the Celandine, but form a cup, a yellow cup or Buttercup. At the base of each petal you find a small honey pouch, which the bees love to visit. When the flower is still in bud, the yellow petals are almost covered by five pale-green hairy sepals. You can see only the yellow tips peeping out. But when the flower opens, these hairy green sepals fold back close round the stalk. In the centre of the flower is a thick cluster of yellow-headed stamens with a knot of green seed-vessels in the middle. The stalk on which the flower grows is slightly hairy, and has a narrow groove on one side. The root is shaped like a small turnip, and has a great many white threads growing out of it. The leaves of this Buttercup are dark green, with soft hairs all over them. They are shaped very irregularly, and are deeply cut up all round the edges. 3. MEADOW BUTTERCUP The Meadow Buttercup is abundant all over the country. It grows beside the Daisy in every field and hedge-bank. In this Buttercup the flower has five bright glossy yellow petals, which open out flat and are not cup-shaped as in the Bulbous Buttercup. There is a hard green knot of seed-vessels in the centre of the flower, with a ring of yellow stamens all round it. When the yellow stamens and petals fall off, this bunch of seed-vessels grows bigger and bigger, until it looks like a small green raspberry. Outside the yellow petals are five pale-green sepals. These remain close behind the yellow flower and do not fold back against the stalk as in the Bulbous Buttercup. The flower-stalk is slightly hairy, but it is not grooved.