ENGLISH BOTANY. 



)1N0 e' 



OEDEE XLI— C OMPOSITJE. 



Herbs or under-shrubs, more rarely shrubs, with alternate 

 or more rarely opposite or verticillate leaves, entire or more or 

 less deeply divided, without distinct stipules. Plowers {florets) 

 perfect or unisexual, sessile on a floret-receptacle {clinanth), in 

 involucrate heads, popularly called compound flowers {anthodes). 

 Leaves [phyllaries) of the involucre (pericline) resembling the 

 sepals of a calyx. Calyx-tube adhering to the ovary, the limb 

 frequently forming a pappus of numerous hairs, which increase 

 in length in fruit ; sometimes, however, the pappus consists of 

 scales, sometimes there is merely a raised border round the top 

 of the ovary, and sometimes the calyx-limb is obsolete. Corolla 

 monopetalous, inserted on an epigynous disk, the tube of various 

 length, often with the limb regular or nearly so {tubular) ; limb 

 often 5-lobed, more rarely 4- or 3-lobed, or 2-lipped {bilabiate) ^ or 

 split down one side and resembling a ribbon {ligulate), rarely 

 absent ; sometimes the outer florets have ligulate corollas, forming 

 a ray round the central tubular florets of the centre or dlslc. Sta- 

 mens 5, rarely 4, inserted upon the tube of the corolla ; filaments 

 generally free above or entirely free, rarely monadelphous ; anthers 

 almost always cohering by their edges, and forming a tube which 

 surrounds the style. Ovary inferior, 1-celled, crowned by an 

 annular epigynous disk. Style terminal, bifid at the apex, with 

 the lobes free or more or less cohering. Ovule solitary, erect from 

 the base, anatropous. Pruit an achenium, often crowned by the 

 remains of the calyx-Kmb in the form of a pappus. Clinanth 

 naked, or clothed with hairs or scales {jxclece), rarely with poly- 

 phyllous involucels enclosing the florets. 



Sub-Order I.— CYNAUOCEPHAL^. 



Elorets generally all tubular and perfect, the exterior florets 

 rarely dissimilar to tliose of the disk, in which case the anthodes 

 are radiant : when this does take place, the exterior florets are 



VOL. V. B 



