COMPOSIT# (Hary.) 3 45 
either regular and 4—5-toothed, or uni-labiate and strap-shaped (ligulate), 
or rarely bi-labiate. Stamens inserted in the tube of the corolla, alternate 
with its lobes; anthers united by their edges into a tube, surrounding 
the style. Ovary with a single, erect ovule; style filiform, forked in 
the fertile flowers ; simple in the abortive. Fruit a dry, small nut or 
achene; seed without albumen. : 
This Order, synonymous with Linneus’s 19th class, Syngenesia, is by much the 
largest in the vegetable kingdom, comprising over 1,000 genera and perhaps 13,000 
species, of which numerous examples may be found in most countries. In 8. Africa 
their number is considerably over 1,500, and easily found examples are Aster, 
Chrysocoma, Helichrysum (or Everlasting), Senecio (grounsel), Osteospermum, Gazania, - 
Cryptosiemma, Sonchus (sow-thistle), &c. But conspicuous as are the flowers of 
these and kindred plants, a little examination shows that each apparent “flower” is 
in reality an injlorescence made up of a multitude of small flowers, each perfect in 
itself, arranged on a common platform or disc (receptacle) surrounded by numerous 
involucral scales. To understand the structure, which is general throughout this 
Order, the student should take some common example,—which may be picked up on 
any roadside or in any waste ground,—make a vertical section through the centre 
of one of the “flowers” (properly flower-heads or capitula), and compare what he will 
there find with the above diagnosis. In order further to assist him, I shall now 
briefly explain some of the terms used in the following descriptions. 
Each capitulum or flower-head is composed of an involucre or outside covering, 
resembling a calyx ; a receptacle on which the flowers stand ; and the flowers 
themselves. 
Involucre.—The small, leafy or scale-like parts of which the involucre is composed 
are called its scales (‘‘ scales of the involucre”). These may be in one, or in several 
rows, separate or cohering into a tube, and are of various textures and forms. In 
some genera, as in Senecio, there are frequently a number of smaller scales at the base 
of the proper involucre, which form a sort of supplementary or external involucre ; 
this is called a calyculus, and the scales which compose it, for distinction sake, are 
called its bracteoles, Involucres which have a calyculus are said to be calycled. 
Receptacle—The receptacle is the summit of the flower-stalk, and is usually flat- 
tened out into a disc, which may be either nearly fiat, hemispherical, or conical. In 
a flower-head which has gone to seed it is usually exposed, from the opening out or 
deflection of the involucral scales, The receptacle is said to be nude, when its 
surface is bare, with bald interspaces between the scars left by the fallen flowers ; 
when it is minutely-pitted, like honeycomb; and fimbriate or fimbril- 
liferous, when the margins or walls of the honeycomb-cells are jagged or fringed. 
In some cases (as in Geigeria, and in the section ‘“‘ Lepicline” of Helichrysum) the 
fringes or fimbrils are separate, and resemble teeth or scales. Such must not be 
confounded with the true scales of the receptacle, which are called pales. se 
latter are modified bracts, and are generally similar in appearance to the innermost — 
involucral scales, but are more rigid and horny; there is never more than one palea to 
each flower ; it is placed on the outer side of the flower, and very generally its base 
wraps round the ovary or the young achene. Palee are always important generic 
characters; they occur in Amellus, Athanasia, (Edera, Eriocephalus, Sphenogyne, &c. 
Flower-heads.— When all the flowers in a flower-head are tubular, and of nearly 
equal length, the head is said to be discoid (as in Chrysocoma, Athanasia, Pteronia, 
&c.). When the flowers in a head are of two kinds, the central ones tubular and 
4-5-toothed, the marginal ones longer, strap-shaped, and one-sided, such a head is 
said to be radiate; the central portion is called the disc, and thes - 
flowers the rays (as in Aster, Senecio, Osteospermum, Gazania, Xc.). en all the 
flowers in a head are strap-shaped and one-sided, the head is semiflosculose (as in 
Sowthistle, Dandelion, &c.). : 
When all the flowers in a head are similar and perfect, each having stamens and 
an ovule-bearing pistil, the head is homogamous (as in Chrysocoma). When the 
flowers are of different sexes, or some perfect and some imperfect, the head is hetero- 
All radiate capitula are heterogamous; their disc-flowers being either per- 
as is commonly the case, or male, with perfect anthers and an abortive pistil ; 
