32 COMPOUND FLOWERS, 



thing. Save for the exceptions, the consideration of them might have 

 been left over to the page where that family is treated of. 



The first grand characteristic of compound flowers is the cohesion 

 of their five long and slender anthers, which grow together by the 

 edges, and form a tubular ring, the upper half of the style being 

 enclosed in it, and the stigmas alone exposed to view. The only 

 example of such cohesion among simple flowers that from other 

 circumstances might be mistaken for truly compound, is in the little 

 plant mentioned before as the Jasione. 



The second great character is, that the flowers, which are extremely 

 minute, and called " florets " (just as the component pieces of a com- 

 pound leaf take the name of "leaflets"), are collected into flat or 

 conical cushions, surrounded by a leafy basket, which serves as a 

 general calyx to the whole. The table-like surface on which they 

 stand is termed the " receptacle ;" and the basket, the " involucrum" 

 or "anthodium." The latter part is occasionally brilliant in colour, 

 and dry and chafi'-like in texture, as happens in the flowers called 

 everlastings. The florets might at the first glance be taken for 

 stamens, so numerous are they, and so small. But they are perfect 

 flowers in all respects. Every one of the yellow pips forming the 

 centre of a daisy has its own calyx, five-lobed and tubular corolla, five 

 stamens, and solitary jjistil, and differs in no respect but that of size 

 from a simple and regular flower of the largest development. In 

 reality there are as many simple and regular flowers, every one of 

 them with all the parts complete, packed together in that little disc, 

 as, with care and patience, we might reckon yellow points. The 

 florets are very seldom less than ten in number ; there are usually 

 many scores, and often several hundreds. When ripe, the multitude 

 is made plain, every ovary becoming a large brownish seed-like fruit, 

 crowned with a delicate feathery wing, which enables the wind to 

 float it away over the country. Every one has noticed the large white 

 tufted heads of the dandelion and the thistle, and how prettily their 

 little balloons sail away when blown with the breath. The marginal 

 florets very commonly have their corollas lengthened into long and 

 narrow petals, which project a considerable distance beyond the edge 

 of the basket, and give the flower the rayed appearance so conspicuous 

 in the white edging of the daisy, and in the magnificent aureola of the 

 Bun-flower. Florets thus lengthened arc called " ligulate." Sometimes 

 the whole arc ligulate, as in the hawkweed, and sometimes they are 

 altogether of the cup or tubular form, when the blossom presents the 



