i66 SOUTH AFRICAN FLOWERING PLANTS. 



five stamens adherent to it. The united anthers can be 

 seen in Fig. 67, II., just above the corolla-lobes. The 

 style, with its two spreading stigmas, protrudes above. 



Each anther is provided with two tails (III.). 

 Similar appendages to the anthers will be found in 

 many Heaths. If we extract a ray floret, we shall 

 find that a pistil is present but no stamens. The 

 corolla has really only three petals, but is much larger 



than the five-pointed little 

 corolla of a disk floret. 



It seems that in changing 

 from the latter into a ray 

 floret, the stamens had to be 

 sacrificed to allow for the en- 

 largement of the corolla. In- 

 deed, in some kinds the pistil 

 goes too, so that the floret is 

 said to be neuter. 



In many garden flowers 

 of this family the flowers have become " double," but 

 this is not the same as the doubling of any ordinary 

 flower, which consists, first, of the substitution of petals 

 instead of stamens and carpels ; and then, secondly, in 

 greatly multiplying the number. 



In all composites, the so-called doubling consists 

 of the conversion of tubular florets of the disk into 

 ligulate ones, like those of the ray. 



In those composites, which have no ray at all, as 



Fig. 68.—Spheno'gyne anthemoi'des. 

 Achene with scaly pappus. 



