Rudbeckia hirta, /.. 



The Digitalis and the Rudbeckia seem to support the view 



that such departures from the type are most likely to OCCUX 

 in individuals which are exhausted, or are from some cause in 

 a condition of reduced vitality. The last energy of the plant 



is extended in the line of self-perpetuation. This enei 

 however, is often wasted in the faulty attempt to multiply 

 the reproductive organs inordinately, rather than to peri 

 a few. Zoologists long since recognized the fact that multi- 

 plication of similar parts was an indication of a lower place 

 in the scale of animal life. 



The illustrations probably will explain the structural 

 peculiarities better than any lengthened descriptions, and 

 a brief explanation is appended. 



The large unnumbered figure represents the whole head of 

 the Rudbeckia, enlarged two diameters. 



Fig. i shows, on the left, a cluster of tubular flowers 

 from the side of the head. Outside this are two involucral 

 bracts. Between the tubular flowers and the bracts rises the 

 tube of a ray flower, out of which three attempted ray flowers 

 spring. From the uppermost one of these is an attempted 

 secondary head of flowers. The clotted lines on the upper 

 side of this secondary head indicate the point from which two 

 flowers arise. The upper of these flowers is tubular, and 

 contains two distinct stamens and a three-cleft stigma, with 

 two of the lobes again parted. These stigmas grow from the 

 top of the rudimentary ovary below. The lower flower shows 

 four distinct stamens and a much enlarged and thickened 

 style and stigmas, the latter being distinctly green and leaf- 

 like. 



The lower dotted branch (Fig. i) shows the point of origin 

 of the cluster of imperfect ray and tubular flowers with 

 which it is connected, and the extreme terminal, enlarged 

 illustration shows more plainly the character of one of the 

 flowers of the last clump. The artist, however, has in that, 

 and in Fig. 5, failed to show the rudimentary ovary which 

 appeared in each case. 



Figs. 2, 3 and 4 show front and back views of a tubular 

 flower and its contents. 



