COMPOSITE FAMILY 223 



nation is more certain. The stamens mature before the 

 pistil, and shed their pollen into the stamen-tube, from 

 whence, in many species, it is swept out by the developing 

 pistil, as by a chimney-sweeper's brush, and is left where 

 curving stigmas of neighboring flowers touch it, and where 

 insects, in crawling over the flowers, carry it from one to 

 another. 



The pollen of some composites is protected at night and 

 in damp weather by the ray flowers, which bend inward and 

 cover the disk, and in a number of species the whole head 

 bends downward. 



In one respect the composites are satisfactory to the 

 flower-hunter in the Florida peninsula, for some are sure 

 to be found in bloom: in another respect they are less 

 satisfactory, for, although it is easy to recognize a flower- 

 ing-head of this family, it is not always easy to identify 

 the species. Our more showy composites are not difficult 

 to identify, but the student who wishes to know our lesser 

 members of this family should resort to a manual of botany, 

 where technical descriptions are given of the several 

 hundred species found in Florida. 



In order to identify the species more easily, it is con- 

 venient to divide the genera into three chief groups, based 

 on the form of the flowers composing the head. (See 

 Keys.) 



GROUP I 



In the thistle, which on a large scale is typical of this 

 group, the small flowers are all alike and are regular 

 in form, being tubular, with four or five tiny lobes. Those 

 flowers are called disk flowers, and the head is called 

 discoid. 



GROUP II 



In this group, which has the wild aster as its type, a 

 flowering-head like that of the first group is encircled by 



