BOTANICAL NOTICE. 119 



is surrounded. Commonly the yellow florets towards the centre 

 are still rounded and closed. These, however, are flowers like the 

 others, but not yet open ; for they expand successively from the edge 

 inwards. This is enough to show the possibility of all these small 

 affairs, both white and yellow, being so many distinct flowers ; and 

 this is a constant fact. 



The daisy has the defect, as a means of illustration, of a com- 

 pound flower, that its parts are so very similar as to be distinguished 

 with difliculty. For this reason it will be better to take the common 

 dandelion {leonfodon taraxacum) for our pattern and guide. Be- 

 sides what has already been described, we shall find at the bottom of 

 the tube of the corolla a few little hairy scubs which stand on the 

 top of the ovary, in the place of the calyx ; botanists call them the 

 pappus — (the pappus is absent in the daisy). This sometimes 

 fonns a beautiful plume of feathers, which catches the wind and 

 enables the seed to soar into the air, and to scatter itself to a distance. 



The delicate feathery balls of the dandelion, which children amuse 

 themselves with blowing them away into the air, are the fruit of that 

 plant crowned by the pappus. Below the pappus is the ovary, con- 

 taining one single ovule ; it terminates in a slender style, which 

 passes through the tube of the corolla, and forks at the top into two 

 stigmas. 



The most casual observer cannot have failed to remark to what a 

 gieat extent this order of plants prevails even in Brittain. It would 

 seem that they predominate rather in temperate regions, especially 

 of the northern hemisphere, where they are considered as forming 

 about one-sixth of the whole vegetation. In Britain, about 140 

 species of them may be reckoned, constituting about one-tenth of 

 the whole number of native flowering plants. In France, they are 

 estimated at about one-seventh, and in Germany at one-eighth; 

 whilst in Lapland they are only one-fifteenth. In Sicily they are 

 said to constitute more than half; and nearly the same proportion is 

 found in some parts of North America, 



The whole order is divided into three subdivisions, viz., the dehor- 

 ae(B, from the common cichory or succory, with which they all agree 

 in possessing a milky juice; this subdivision is characterized by 



