22 COMPOUND FLOWERS. 



"The white rays of the border, which look like bits 

 of tape, are also so many distinct florets, but less per- 

 fect than the yellew tubular ones of the disc ; they 

 are toothed commonly at the extremity, and appear to 

 be tubular florets, cleft open nearly to the base, and 

 deprived of the tube of stamens, but furnished with 

 the style and bifid stigma. The whole of these 

 florets or lesser flowers included within one common 

 calyx, formed, in the White-weed, of numerous scales 

 laid over each other like tiles on the roof of a house 

 or imbricated, constitute this curious assemblage, de- 

 servedly called a compound flower. The Sun-flower, 

 Thistle, or Artichoke, from their superior magnitude, 

 would best explain the nature of these curious little 

 flowers, which are almost always similar in any other 

 flower that you may discover to be componnd. As 

 might ^e supposed from the nature of a compound 

 flower, the florets are not all eijftunled at the same time, 

 and they commonly begin to open at the edge of the 

 disc, and proceed inwards to the centre for a period 

 of several days. 



The tribe of compound flowers are divisible into 

 three distinct sections, upon which Linnaeus, Jussieu, 

 and others have divided them into orders and tribes. 

 The whole are composed of two sorts of flowers, or 

 rather florets, as many, or several of them united in 

 a common calyx go to form the general or compound 

 flower. These florets are all either tubular, with a 

 toothed border ; or strap-shaped, the floret appearing 

 split open, and spread out like a piece of tape, but 

 still retaining the toothed extremity. These were call- 

 ed by old botanical writers semi-florets, or halved 

 flowers. 



In the first section, then, we may place the semi- 

 flosculous flowers, being made up entirely of flat or 

 strap-shaped florets. Such you* will find the flowers of 



