704 



ASTERACE^. 



[Epigynous Exogens. 



But although it must be admitted that the di\asions of Lessing, so nearly followed by 

 De Candolle, are ingenious, and often founded on striking characters, yet Botanists will 

 also allow that they are far from satisf;y'ing the mind, and that they can only at the best 



6 7 7 



2 5 



Fig. CCCCLXXVI. 



be looked upon as temporary devices for dealing with a most unmanageable and difficult 

 subject. The Composite Order alone comprehends at the present day more species than 

 Linnseus knew as belonging to the whole vegetable kingdom, and the time will come when 

 this huge Order will be classified upon different principles. There can be no doubt that 

 the genera are needlessly multiplied ; a very little practice tells us that the genera 

 collected under the signs above given do not in all cases exliibit those signs, as is evident 

 from the figures executed under the eye of De Candolle himself ; and we know that, in 

 fact, genera find their place by considerations apart from those ostensibly put forward 

 by De Candolle. In the meanwhile, the old Jussieuan Sub-orders Corj-mbiferse, Cyna- 

 racese, and Cichoracese, are unimpaired, and with the Bilabiate division, of the existence 

 of which Jussieu was ignorant, constitute the immutable foundation of whatever futiu'e 

 ingenuity may propose. 



The Composite Order stands, as has been already stated, in most immediate affinity 

 with Calycers and Teazelworts ; but it is also closely allied to Bellworts and the rest of 

 the Campanal Alliance. If the ovary were furnished with more than one cell, and there 

 were many seeds in each cell, there would be little distinction from Lobeliads ; and if 

 Bellworts had syngenesious anthers and the latter characters in addition, they too would 

 be almost identical. Indeed, the milky fluids of Bellworts and LobeUads are of the 

 same nature as in Cichoracese. 



Among the peculiarities of the Order is the presence of a marginal vein to each petal, 

 of which the corolla is composed ; this vein passes up the edge, reaches the point, and 

 then turns down again, so as to form a line running down through the axis of each petal; 

 so that a Composite corolla may have five veins opposite the re-entering angles, or ten 

 opposite them in pairs, or fifteen, when, in addition to the last circumstance, the axile 

 vein of each petal is completed in the way described. There may even be ten veins, or 

 indeed twenty, by variations of this peculiarity, as a httle reflection will make evident. 



Decaisne has made some curious remarks upon the hau's of plants of this Order. In 

 Ruckeria the pericarp is covered with papillae ; on placing one of these papillae in water, 

 it immediately separates into 2 hps, and thence emits 2 mucilaginous tubes, which issue 

 forth hke wu'es, spirally unrolling themselves, and finally much exceed the papillte from 

 which they proceed. These tubes are apparently formed by a very considerable num- 

 ber of threads, placed one upon the other in the manner of a skein of tlii'ead. Various 



Fig. CCCCLXXVI.— 1. Tubular floret of Webbia aristata, with double pappus (A^emoniaceae, DC.) 



2, tubular floret and stigma of Anisochseta mikanioides, with pappus of 4 setae (Eupatoriacea;, DC.) ; 



3. tubular floret of Berthelotia lanceolata, with silky pappus ( Asteroides, DC.) ; 4. Stigma of Blumea 

 senecioides ( Asteroidese,Z>C'. ) ; 5. ligulate floret and stigma of Lipochseta umbellata; pappus of two unequal 

 winged paleae (Senecionideae, Z>C,) ; 6. stigma of Dunantia achyranthes (SenecionideBe, DC.)-. 7. tubular 

 floret with ventricose throat and the stigma of Aplotaxis nepalensis (Cynarese, DC.) ; 8. ligulate bilabiate 

 floret of Oreoseris lanuginosa (Mutisiacese, Z)C.) ; 9. ligulate floret of Brachyramphus obtusus (Cicho- 

 raceae, DC.) j t- \ 



