THE DAISY, BLUEBELL, AND COPROSMA FAMILIES. 165 
a species. Were an extremely conservative estimate of the species of 
the whole flora to be made, after uniting far more species into aggre- 
gates than has ever been done the total would be as high as 1,500. 
The families and the genera number 101 and 382 respectively. 
It would be out of place here to go at any detail into technical 
matters pertaining to the families and genera, so, commencing with 
the most highly organized families and proceeding gradually down- 
wards, only a few of the more interesting are mentioned. Neither 
can any attempt be made to define in popular language the families, 
genera, and other divisions of the plant-world—a task of extreme 
difficulty, and the result, when attaimed, harder for the beginner 
to understand than would be his learning the necessary technical 
terms, which have a definite meaning and can be used with precision. 
The daisy family (Compositae) is the largest of our plant families. 
What is popularly called the flower is not a single flower, but it is 
really a collection of small flowers placed closely side by side upon 
the expanded summit of the flower-stalk, and forming a “ head.” 
The cotton-plants and mountain-musks (Celmisia), the groundsels 
(Senecio), the vegetable-sheep and its relatives (Raoulia), the cotulas 
(Cotula), the daisies (Lagenophora and Brachycome), the edelweiss 
(Leucogenes), the endemic tree-groundsel (Traversia), and the heli- 
chrysums belong to this order. Many are amongst the most striking 
of our plants, both in form and flower. The total number of species* 
in this family is about 260. 
The bluebell family (Campanulaceae) contains only 13 species, 
but many are exceedingly pretty. It contains the New Zealand 
bluebell (Wahlenbergia albomarginata), whose white or biuish flowers 
are so conspicuous a feature of the upland grasslands; the pretty 
white pratias (Pratia), which are related to the well-known lobelia 
of gardens; three lobelias (Lobelia)—one a pretty fell-field species 
(L. linnaeoides) and another confined to shingle-slips (LZ. Roughiz) ; 
and the endemic Colensoa physaloides, a handsome plant, easily 
cultivated in gardens, with blue flowers. 
The coprosma family (Rubiaceae) contains the large genus Coprosma, 
which is closely related to the coffee-plant. Coprosmas can always be 
recognized by the male and female flowers being on different plants, 
and by the berry-like fruit containing two plano-convex stones. 
*The number of species given for the families in this chapter refers only to the 
number of New Zealand species. 
