AMONG THE WILD FLOWERS. 45 
springs from it, and is crowned with a tuft of 
bristles or hairs termed the Pappus, or down. 
Sometimes this pappus is like feathers ; in most 
of the genera of this Order it is sessile, seated 
upon the seed or nut, achentum, without a 
stalk ; but in the Dandelion it is elevated upon 
an erect pillar, which is developed while the 
seed is ripening. On the first fine day when 
the air is warm and dry, after the fruit is fully 
formed and ripe, this circle of hairs expands 
and forms the well-known white feathery globe, 
whose separate parts are carried everywhere 
by the breeze, like little balloons of which 
the beautifully embossed car is the seed or nut. 
The proverbial Thistle-down floats its seed 
in the same way. The Common Groundsel, 
Senecio Vulgaris, also a composite flower, but 
without any ray-florets, forms a feathery globe 
in like manner, and thus sows itself abundantly. 
The early spring finds, in poor soils, the 
flowers and leaves separately appearing of the 
Colt’s-foot, Zzsszlago Farfara. Another early 
species of the Composite Order is the Butter- 
bur, Petasztes Vulgaris, which frequently by 
river sides sends up numerous dense spikes of 
purplish flowers, followed by leaves somewhat 
